The Spiritual Genealogy of the Chinese Communists | Our Journey is the Sea of Stars -- A Review of the Spirit of Manned Spaceflight
Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, 16 September: Our Journey is the Sea of Stars -- A Review of the Spirit of Manned Spaceflight
Xinhua News Agency reporter Li Guoli
The desert Gobi is drunk in autumn, and the weak water poplar welcomes guests home.
After completing the set mission, the three astronauts of Shenzhou XII are about to end their 3-month space flight and embark on the road home, returning to the Dongfeng landing field in the Gobi desert in the northwest.
When he returned, space was still that space, and Chinese once again marked a new height of a country here - the first rapid rendezvous and docking of the Shenzhou spacecraft, the first time it entered the space station it built, the longest space stay, the longest outgoing activity...
This is a new height for China's aerospace industry and a new height for the Chinese nation.
Standing on the timeline of China's official entry into the era of the space station, we look back at the extraordinary course that Chinese astronauts have traveled in the past 29 years, and we can't help but find that it is a spirit that lifts up the national dignity and pride of the Chinese nation again and again. This spirit is the spirit of manned spaceflight - especially able to endure hardships, especially able to fight, especially able to tackle key problems, especially able to dedicate, and has also become a precious wealth of the national spirit, inspiring generations of astronauts not to forget their original intentions and continue to move forward.
(i)
On September 21, 1992, the Party Central Committee officially approved the implementation of China's manned space project. Since that day, China's manned space industry has quietly started under extremely difficult and difficult conditions.
By this time, the Soviet Union had launched three generations of spacecraft and built the Salyut and Mir space stations. The United States completed the leap of the spacecraft to the space shuttle.
In the face of the status quo that was later than foreign countries, thousands of scientific researchers began to tackle key problems day and night; in the face of the harsh natural environment of the Desert Gobi, the hot sun braved the wind and sand to build a manned space launch site; in the face of the dilemma of no workflow for test launches, a research group composed of more than a dozen people traveled across the country to investigate more than 2,000 days and nights, and designed a new test launch process... No matter how great the difficulties, the Chinese astronauts cannot be frightened, and they are proud of their hardships, take pleasure in suffering, and work hard, launching attacks against difficulties and obstacles again and again, and challenging their physical and psychological limits again and again.
On January 5, 1998, 14 people carefully selected from more than 1,500 outstanding air force pilots gathered in Beijing Space City to become the first batch of Chinese astronauts.
The difference between the sky and space, one word, was vividly called "the ladder to heaven" by the Soviet astronaut Leonov, which included a lot of arduous training.
In the high-speed rotating centrifuge, ordinary people can only withstand the gravitational acceleration of 3 to 4 G, but the astronaut has to withstand the gravitational acceleration of 8 G for 40 seconds. During the training, their facial features were squeezed and deformed, tears flew out unconsciously, their chests were extremely depressed, it was very difficult to breathe, and their arms could not be lifted. The mother of an astronaut looked at it and waved her hand in tears and said, "Don't look, don't look!" ”
When doing this kind of training, the astronaut has a red button at hand, and once he can't stand it, he can immediately press the red button and request a pause. But to this day, no one has ever pressed this red button.
It can be said that "special ability to endure hardships" is tempered by a special working environment in the field of manned spaceflight. It is precisely under the inspiration of this spirit that the Chinese astronauts who participated in the development, construction and testing of the project can overcome all kinds of unimaginable difficulties and realize the Chinese nation's thousand-year dream of flying in the sky.
(ii)
What is the greatest motivating force in the journey of life? The choice of Participants in China's Manned SpaceFlight Research and Research Institute is to deeply integrate personal development into the aerospace industry of the motherland.
On September 27, 2008, against the background of the black sky and the blue earth, Shenzhou 7 astronaut Zhai Zhigang left the first footprint of the Chinese in the vast space, and the scene of the bright five-star red flag slowly fluttering has condensed into Chinese eternal memory.
However, behind this historical moment is a thrilling test of life and death.
Just as Zhai Zhigang was preparing to leave the cabin, the orbital cabin frequently sounded a fire alarm. Facing the accident that he was most afraid of in space, Zhai Zhigang still chose to get out of the cabin without hesitation. He said: "No matter what happens, we have to complete the task and let the five-star red flag fly high in space." ”
This is also the common voice of Chinese astronauts.
At 9 o'clock on October 15, 2003, the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center thundered, and the Long March 2F rocket held up the Shenzhou 5 spacecraft and stabbed straight into the sky. Yang Liwei felt good at first, but soon ran into trouble - the rocket began to shake sharply, creating resonance.
He had never done such training before.
"Unbearable pain, feeling like all the organs are going to be broken." Yang Liwei said, "For a moment, I thought I was going to die. ”
Yang Liwei was not afraid of sacrifice. Before the expedition, he was already mentally prepared to sacrifice his life. His fear is that if sacrificed, he will not be able to complete the next task, Chinese's flying dream will be postponed.
The resonance lasted for 26 seconds. Later, some people commented: 26 seconds, witnessed the bravery and fearlessness of Chinese astronauts, and the bold loyalty of sacrificing themselves for the country.
18 years later, the "Spirit of the Times Shines on the River" activity of looking up at the Starry Sky And Talking Heavenly Palace was successfully held in Beijing and Hong Kong. A young Hong Kong student asked Yang Liwei: "What do you think is the coolest part of the astronaut profession?" ”
Yang Liwei replied: "In space, when I showed the Chinese flag to the world, at that moment I thought I was the coolest. ”
Closely linking personal ideals with the destiny of the motherland, personal choices with the needs of the party, and personal interests with the interests of the people -- this is the source of china's astronauts' special ability to fight, and the most fundamental reason why this fighting collective that can fight a hard battle has continuously created extraordinary achievements.
(iii)
Manned spaceflight is an important indicator of a country's comprehensive national strength. Although it started late, Chinese astronauts have always adhered to a high starting point for development, independent innovation, worked hard to tackle key problems, made breakthroughs and mastered a number of core technologies, and embarked on a manned space engineering development path with Chinese characteristics in a relatively short period of time.
Shenzhou spacecraft from the beginning of development aimed at the level of the international third-generation manned spacecraft, directly using the design scheme of three people and three cabins; in order to create a Shenzhou flying arrow, the carrier rocket design and manufacturing personnel carried out nearly a thousand technical research points, so that the Long March 2F rocket became a world-renowned "gold medal rocket"; the construction of a manned space launch site, the use of Chinese characteristics of the overall technical program - vertical assembly, vertical testing, vertical overall transportation, long-distance test launch, among the world's advanced ranks... A series of new technologies, new creations and new achievements are all the crystallization of the wisdom of Chinese astronauts in innovating and tackling key problems.
In the early morning of November 20, 1999, deep in the northwest desert. Thousands of people waited excitedly in the cold winds that struck.
At 6:30 a.m., the Long March rocket carried the China-developed Shenzhou-1 unmanned spacecraft straight up into the clouds and landed accurately in the early morning of the next day in the predetermined recovery area.
This means that China's aerospace industry has completed the road that developed countries have traveled in 30 or 40 years in just 7 years.
The dirtiest road can leave the deepest footprint. Similarly, a spirit, only after the baptism of storms and the tempering of setbacks and failures, can it be immersed in the bone marrow and unforgettable.
On the evening of May 19, 2021, the Tianzhou-2 cargo spacecraft was less than 3 hours away from launch, and a pressure value parameter of the Long March 7 Yaosan carrier rocket suddenly appeared abnormal, and the launch had to be postponed.
Whether this rocket can be successfully launched is related to whether the "space-earth transport corridor" of the Chinese space station can be successfully built, and it is also related to the smooth implementation of the follow-up manned space program.
There are 9 days until the next launch window. In order to find out the fault, the test team members changed their clothes, put on masks, and drilled into the arrow body from the 50 cm square hatch again and again to carefully check.
In Hainan in May, the outdoor temperature is as high as more than 30 degrees Celsius, and the humidity reaches more than 90%. In the rocket capsule, it is a low temperature of minus 183 degrees Celsius. The huge temperature difference tested the Long March 7, and also tested every test team member. And they have no time to take care of everything, they are holding their breath and must complete the problem positioning as soon as possible.
On May 25, the zeroing work was nearing completion. At 20:55 on May 29, the rocket was successfully launched!
"Return to zero", a term coined by Chinese astronauts. This phrase, which can be simply interpreted as "finding the cause of the failure from scratch", is broken down into 5 steps. It is precisely the principle of "returning to zero" and the rigorous and meticulous style of work that has been tempered by repeated launch tests that have made China's manned space flight successfully again and again.
It can be said that the lofty mission has rejuvenated the spirit of Chinese astronauts who are particularly capable of tackling key problems, and this spirit has inspired Chinese astronauts to brave hardships and bravely climb the peak, and in just 29 years, they have realized the space miracle from unmanned flight to manned flight, from one person a day to many people for many days, from cabin experiments to spacewalks, from single-ship flight to stable operation of the assembly.
(iv)
At 9:22 on June 17, 2021, the Long March 2 F Yao XII carrier rocket was ignited and launched at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. After about 573 seconds, the spacecraft successfully separated from the rocket and entered the predetermined orbit, sending the three astronauts into space smoothly.
Before the expedition, the three astronauts made a special trip to the Dongfeng Revolutionary Martyrs' Cemetery, which is several kilometers away from the launch site. From marshals and generals to ordinary officers and soldiers and scientific and technological workers, more than 760 people who sacrificed their lives for the motherland's aerospace industry are buried here.
Pan Renjin is one of them. On April 18, 1998, when the Shenzhou-1 spacecraft was preparing for the war, Pan Renjin, the person in charge of electromagnetic compatibility at the manned space launch site, collapsed on the job.
In order to support her husband's work, Pan Renjin resolutely quit her job in Shanghai and came to the desert with her husband and plunged into the front line of scientific research experiments. Most of the testing work was carried out in the wild, whether it was hot summer or cold winter, she stayed on site.
Late that night, Pan Renjin suddenly fell down, vomiting blood. At the end of her life, she made an agreement with her husband: "The spaceship is in the sky, don't forget to tell each other."
The hero is indifferent to fame and profit, but wishes to fly when the dream comes true. Today, we can pay tribute to the martyrs that 12 Shenzhou spacecraft have flown into space from her resting place, and the construction of Chinese space home has begun.
As a large-scale cross-century project in China's aerospace history, since the implementation of the manned space project, thousands of units across the country have been brought together, and hundreds of thousands of people have participated in it. Regardless of whether they are in the front or in the rear, regardless of fame and fortune, they have formed a strong synergy for a common goal. As Huang Weifen, chief designer of the astronaut system, said, manned spaceflight is really "extraordinary achievements with the ordinary, and famous with no name."
The spirit is invisible, but it can inspire infinite strength, inspire people to carry the weight forward and achieve dreams. The spirit of manned space flight is a spiritual monument erected by Chinese astronauts on the journey of building a scientific and technological power, and is a precious spiritual wealth that continues with the spiritual bloodline of the "two bombs and one satellite" and has a very distinct characteristic of the times, and will forever inspire the Chinese nation to strive to forge ahead, leapfrog the times, and bravely move forward.
Source: Xinhua Net