Profile: Cai Xuzhe, newcomer to space, but always flight dreamer

JIUQUAN, June 4 (Xinhua) -- Dreaming of flying high since childhood, Cai Xuzhe, a new face on the Shenzhou-14 crew, has spent 12 years as an astronaut to prepare for his first journey to space.

"I am delighted and proud but felt more about the sense of duty," Cai told the Saturday press conference. He is the country's 14th astronaut on a space mission.

Cai and his two crewmates, Chen Dong and Liu Yang, will be launched Sunday onboard the Shenzhou-14 spaceship for a six-month stay in orbit. They will complete the construction of the Tiangong space station with a basic three-module structure consisting of the core module Tianhe and the lab modules Wentian and Mengtian.

Cai regarded the mission as a sacred duty heavier than mountains.

Born in 1976 in the countryside of Shenzhou City, north China's Hebei Province, Cai was fascinated with airplanes as a child. Every time he heard a plane flying past, he would rush outside and stare up at it till it flew away and disappeared.

His idol in middle school was an air force commander. He was also a subscriber to the magazine China Air Force, from which he learned aviation knowledge and appreciated the charm of piloting planes.

Cai was admitted to an Air Force flight college in his final year at school.

Upon graduation from college, he volunteered to work at an airport short of pilots and in poor condition. He studied and trained his flying skills there assiduously.

In May 2010, Cai was selected to join the second batch of Chinese astronauts.

Since then, he has undergone training that challenges his physical and psychological limits, which has thoroughly remolded him.

Survival training in the Badain Jaran Desert in northwest China in 2018 impressed him in particular. During the 48-hour training, he endured scorching heat above 40 degrees Celsius, sandstorms, heavy rain, and cold below zero degrees Celsius at night. He seemed to experience all four seasons in the 48 hours.

His outstanding training performance finally enabled him to stand out and become a Shenzhou-14 crew member.

During the upcoming space mission, the moment that Cai is most looking forward to is to see the completion of the space station construction after the docking of the core module Tianhe and the lab module Mengtian.

"I will try to adapt to the zero-gravity space environment and get familiar with our space home as soon as possible," he said.

"In my spare time, I will also enjoy the beauty of space, take photos of the beautiful Earth and our motherland, look at the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, and search for my hometown," he added.