Shenzhou 13

Zhai Zhigang

• Birthday: 10/10/1966
• Role: Commander
• Nationality: Chinese
• First Flight: 09/25/2008
• Last Flight: 10/15/2021

Zhai Zhigang (born October 10, 1966) is a major general in the People’s Liberation Army Air Force and a CNSA astronaut. During the Shenzhou 7 mission in 2008, he became the first Chinese citizen to carry out a spacewalk.

Wang Yaping

• Birthday: 01/27/1980
• Role: Operator
• Nationality: Chinese
• First Flight: 06/11/2013
• Last Flight: 10/15/2021

Colonel Wang Yaping is a Chinese military pilot and astronaut. Wang was the second female astronaut to be named by the CNSA, and the second Chinese woman in space.

She was a candidate for the space mission Shenzhou 9 in 2012. However, Liu Yang was selected over her for the historic mission of the first Chinese female space traveller. Wang was a member of the backup crew for SZ-9.

Wang became the second Chinese female astronaut as a member of the Shenzhou 10 spaceship crew, which orbited the earth in June 2013, and of the Tiangong-1 orbiting space station with which it docked. She was the first member of the crew announced, in April, while the remainder of the crew were announced in June. Wang Yaping was one of two women in space on the 50th anniversary of Vostok 6, the first spaceflight by a woman, Valentina Tereshkova. The other woman in space on 16 June 2013 was Karen Nyberg, an American astronaut aboard the International Space Station. While aboard Tiangong-1, Wang conducted scientific experiments and taught a physics lesson to Chinese students by live television broadcast.

Ye Guangfu

• Birthday: 09/01/1980
• Role: Operator
• Nationality: Chinese
• First Flight: 10/15/2021
• Last Flight: 04/25/2024

Chinese astronaut Ye Guangfu was born in 1980 in the Sichuan province of China. He is an air force pilot and spent four years as an instructor and four years as a jet fighter pilot amassing 1100 hours of flight time. Ye was recruited as an astronaut trainee for China’s Astronaut Center in 2010 and qualified in 2014.

Birth day unkown.

Shenzhou 13

• Type: Human Exploration
• Orbit: Low Earth Orbit

Second crewed flight to the Chinese Tiangong space station carrying Zhai Zhigang, commander, Wang Yaping and Ye Guangfu, operators, on their second, second and first spaceflight respectively. Their mission duration onboard the TSS is 6 months, the longest so far in Chinese spaceflight.

Launch Area 4 (SLS-1 / 921)

Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People’s Republic of China

Launch Area 4 (SLS-1 / 921) has witnessed the launch of 23 rockets, including 23 orbital launch attempts, while Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People’s Republic of China, has been the site for 229 rocket launches.

China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation Long March 2F/G

The Long March 2F is a Chinese orbital carrier rocket, part of the Long March 2 rocket family. Designed to launch the crewed Shenzhou spacecraft, the Long March 2F is a human-rated two-stage version of the Long March 2E rocket, which in turn was based on the Long March 2C launch vehicle. It is launched from complex SLS at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center.

China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation

The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) is the main contractor for the Chinese space program. It is state-owned and has a number of subordinate entities which design, develop and manufacture a range of spacecraft, launch vehicles, strategic and tactical missile systems, and ground equipment. It was officially established in July 1999 as part of a Chinese government reform drive, having previously been one part of the former China Aerospace Corporation. Various incarnations of the program date back to 1956.