Chen Dong ( zh, s=陈冬, t=陳冬, p=Chén Dōng; born 12 December 1978) is a

Chinese Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...

fighter pilot and

taikonaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spacecraft. Although generally reserve ...

selected as part of the

Shenzhou program Shenzhou may refer to: * Shenzhou, or "Divine Land", one of the Chinese names of China * Shenzhou program, a crewed spaceflight initiative by the People's Republic of China * Shenzhou (spacecraft), spacecraft from China which first carried a Chi ...

. A fighter pilot in the

People's Liberation Army Air Force The People's Liberation Army Air Force, also referred to as the Chinese Air Force () or the People's Air Force (), is the primary aerial warfare service of the People's Liberation Army. The PLAAF controls most of the PLA's air assets, includi ...

(PLAAF), he was selected to be a

CNSA The China National Space Administration (CNSA) is a government agency of the People's Republic of China headquartered in Haidian, Beijing, responsible for civil space administration and international space cooperation. These responsibilities ...

in 2010. In December 2022, he set a new record for longest stay in space by a Chinese astronaut with a cumulative 214 days in space.

Early life and education

Chen was born in

Luoyang Luoyang ( zh, s=洛阳, t=洛陽, p=Luòyáng) is a city located in the confluence area of the Luo River and the Yellow River in the west of Henan province, China. Governed as a prefecture-level city, it borders the provincial capital of Zheng ...

Henan Henan; alternatively Honan is a province in Central China. Henan is home to many heritage sites, including Yinxu, the ruins of the final capital of the Shang dynasty () and the Shaolin Temple. Four of the historical capitals of China, Lu ...

, on 12 December 1978 from a working-class family. Both his father Chen Shulin ( zh, s=陈树林, labels=no) and mother Huang Yan ( zh, s=黄焱, labels=no) were workers at Luoyang Copper Processing Group Material Adjustment Co., Ltd. (formerly Luoyang Copper Processing Factory), and he has an elder brother named Chen Bo ( zh, s=陈波, labels=no). He studied at Luoyang Copper Processing Factory High School (now Jinghua Campus of Luoyang Second High School). He was a graduate of the PLAAF Changchun Flight Academy (now PLAAF Aviation University), and holds a master's degree in engineering from

Xi'an Jiaotong University Xi'an Jiaotong University (XJTU; zh, p=, c=西安交通大学, labels=no) is a public university in Xi'an, Shaanxi, China. It is affiliated with and funded by the Ministry of Education of China. The university is part of Project 211, Project 9 ...

. He joined the

Chinese Communist Party The Communist Party of China (CPC), also translated into English as Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Founded in 1921, the CCP emerged victorious in the ...

in April 1999.

Military career

He joined the PLAAF in August 1997, eventually achieving the rank of Colonel. He was promoted to Senior Colonel in 2022.

Astronaut career

Chen was selected for the second batch for

Chinese astronauts This is a list of Chinese astronauts. Although they are sometimes referred to as taikonauts in the media, this term is not officially used in China. The official designation in English is simply astronauts (Chinese: 航天员 hángtiānyuán). Th ...

in 2009 when he was a combat aircraft pilot. He was interviewed by

Yang Liwei Yang Liwei (; born 21 June 1965) is a Chinese major general, former military pilot, and former taikonaut of the People's Liberation Army. In October 2003, Yang became the first person sent into space by the Chinese space program. This missi ...

Shenzhou 11

He was selected to fly on the

Shenzhou 11 Shenzhou 11 was a crewed spaceflight of the Shenzhou program of China, launched on 17 October 2016 (16 October UTC) from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. It was China's sixth crewed space mission, at 33 days, it was the longest until the fo ...

mission in October 2016 with astronaut

Jing Haipeng Jing Haipeng (; born 24 October 1966) is a major general of the People's Liberation Army Ground Force (PLAGF) in active service as a vice-commander of the 82nd Group Army. A fighter pilot in the PLA Air Force (PLAAF), he was selected to be ...

. The two underwent more than 3,000 hours of training before the launch of the spacecraft. On 17 October 2016 at 07:30 local time (23:30 GMT on 16 October), Chen lifted off with Shenzhou 11 for a 33-day space mission to the

Tiangong-2 Tiangong-2 () was a Chinese space laboratory and part of the Project 921-2 space station program. Tiangong-2 was launched on 15 September 2016. It was deorbited as planned on 19 July 2019. Tiangong-2 was neither designed nor planned to be a ...

space station as his first spaceflight, launched from the

Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center (JSLC; also known as Shuangchengzi Missile Test Center; Launch Complex B2; formally Northwest Comprehensive Missile Testing Facility (); Base 20; 63600 Unit) is a Chinese space vehicle launch facility ( spacep ...

using a

Long March 2F The Long March 2F ( ''Changzheng 2F''), also known as the CZ-2F, LM-2F and Shenjian (, "Divine Arrow"), is a Chinese orbital carrier rocket, part of the Long March 2 rocket family. Designed to launch crewed Shenzhou spacecraft, the Long March ...

launch rocket. The crew landed successfully after the 33 day mission on 18 November 2016, marking China's longest crewed space flight to date. The reentry module of the Shenzhou-11 spacecraft landed in Inner Mongolia around 2.15 p.m (China time) after detaching from the space lab on 17 November.

Shenzhou 14

On June 5, 2022, Chen launched aboard

Shenzhou 14 Shenzhou 14 () was a Chinese spaceflight to the Tiangong space station, launched on 5 June 2022. It carried three People's Liberation Army Astronaut Corps (PLAAC) Astronaut#Taikonaut, taikonauts on board a Shenzhou (spacecraft), Shenzhou spacecr ...

to the

Tiangong space station Tiangong (), officially the ''Tiangong'' space station (), is a permanently crewed space station constructed by China and operated by China Manned Space Agency. Tiangong is a modular design, with modules docked together while in low Earth o ...

as commander for a 6-month stay. He completed three spacewalks during the mission.

Shenzhou 20

On April 24, 2025, Chen Dong launched on the

Shenzhou 20 Shenzhou 20 () is a Chinese spaceflight to the Tiangong space station launched on 24 April 2025. It carries three taikonauts on board a Shenzhou spacecraft. The mission is the 15th crewed Chinese spaceflight and the 20th flight overall of the ...

mission to the Tiangong space station, where he is currently serving as commander.

Awards

For his achievements on the Shenzhou 11 mission, Chen was awarded the Spaceflight Merit Medal (Third Class) along with the honorary title of "hero astronaut" on 26 December 2016 by the

Central Military Commission Central Military Commission may refer to: *Central Military Commission (China), the highest national defense organization in the People's Republic of China. *Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of Vietnam, the highest body in Vietnam ...

Personal life

Chen married Wang Xiaoyan ( zh, s=汪晓燕, labels=no) in 2005 and has twin sons.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chen, Dong 1978 births Living people People from Luoyang People's Liberation Army Astronaut Corps Shenzhou program astronauts People's Liberation Army Air Force personnel Spacewalkers