Deputy director of the 57th workshop at the Tianjin Aerospace Long March Rocket Manufacturing Corporation Cui Yun was selected as one of the first Top Ten Craftsmen in Tianjin released by the Tianjin Municipal Trade Union in November.

The corporation is affiliated with the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALVT).

Cui Yun is the first and the only premium technician specializing in rocket assembly at the institute and is now in charge of the assembly work of the Long March VII and Long March V.

He has been working in the industry for 35 years and is still working on the front line of rocket manufacturing. He has participated in many rocket assembly projects and the Long March V is his 70th one.

Cui pays close attention to details and intends to do only the best work.

He said one rocket contains about 100,000 components and the assembly workshop is the last step before launch.

"We need to generally assemble all the components, instruments, and cables for an entire rocket and every detail has to be perfect and accurate," Cui said.

"Even a tiny bit of wiggle can cause a disaster in gravity-free and super high-speed conditions," Cui stressed. To ensure perfect rocket separation, every conduit has to be installed at the absolute center and average error needs to be within 0.5 millimeter.

Cui Yun shares his working experiences with his students. [Photo/enorth.com.cn]

Cui is a hard-working craftsman and is obsessed in solving insolvable problems since he first entered the rocket manufacturing industry.

"I am attracted by problems others cannot solve," he said.

After graduated from technical school, Cui was assigned to the assembly workshop for rocket manufacturing. He used to learn a lot from his other colleagues and stayed in the library all the time, studying background information on rocket assembly and got acquainted with all parts of a rocket.

Cui Yun and his team inspect an element needed for rocket assembly. [Photo/enorth.com.cn]

Cui is also rigorous with his students in the workshop. Most of his students are in their 20s. They said that Cui never allows words such as "almost", "probably", or "nearly" to appear. Cui is very cautious, particularly with assembly work. These young people grow a lot under his guidance.

"The future Chinese aerospace missions will be even harder and arduous. Being the cradle of China’s rockets, Tianjin is indispensible. Meanwhile, a young and developing assembly team is also significant," Cui added, "When I am old, I will still use my walking stick to supervise and push the youth to keep moving forward and chase higher goals."

Cui Yun repeatedly tests assembly data in the workshop with his students. [Photo/enorth.com.cn]