CMC vice chairman calls on military to learn from astronauts

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CMC vice chairman calls on military to learn from astronauts

(Xinhua) 08:34, August 21, 2013

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BEIJING, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- The Central Military Commission (CMC) Vice Chairman Xu Qiliang on Tuesday called on the Chinese military to learn from the country's astronauts.

Xu made the comments at an awards ceremony where three astronauts who completed China's longest manned space mission in June were presented with medals for their outstanding service to the country's space programs.

Nie Haisheng, commander of the Shenzhou-10 mission crew and a second-time space traveler, was honored with a second-class aerospace achievement medal; Zhang Xiaoguang and Wang Yaping, the only female astronaut of the mission, were both conferred third-class medals and the honorary title of "heroic astronaut."

The military should learn from the astronauts and consolidate its confidence in China's socialist path and system, Xu said, adding the pursuit of the space dream will boost the realization of the Chinese dream.

The three astronauts were sent into space aboard Shenzhou-10 on June 11 and returned to Earth on June 26.

In its 15-day journey in space, Shenzhou-10 docked with the orbiting space lab Tiangong-1 twice, once through automatic operation and the other manually.

The astronauts spent 12 days in Tiangong-1, where they conducted space-specific medical experiments, technical tests and delivered a lecture to students on Earth about basic physics principles.

China is the third country after the United States and Russia to acquire the technologies and skills necessary for space rendezvous and docking procedures, as well as supply manpower and materials for an orbiting module via different docking methods.

Previous docking procedures conducted between Shenzhou-type spacecraft and the orbiting space lab included two automatic dockings by the unmanned Shenzhou-8 in 2011 and both an automatic and manual docking by the manned Shenzhou-9 in 2012.

Since its first manned space mission in 2003, China has sent 10 astronauts and six spacecraft into space.

（Editor：YanMeng、Yao Chun）