Tang Shengjie (; born December 1989) is a Chinese pilot 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 ...

. He enlisted in the

People's Liberation Army The People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the military of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the People's Republic of China (PRC). It consists of four Military branch, services—People's Liberation Army Ground Force, Ground Force, People's ...

(PLA) in September 2008.

Biography

Tang was born in a rural village in

Dingxi Dingxi ( zh, c=定西 , p=Dìngxī), also known as Longyou ( zh, c=陇右, p=Lǒngyòu) is a prefecture-level city in the southeast of Gansu province, People's Republic of China. As of the 2020 census, its population was 2,524,097 inhabitants, of ...

Gansu Gansu is a provinces of China, province in Northwestern China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeastern part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibetan Plateau, Ti ...

, northwest China to a family of farmers in December 1989. Since childhood, Tang had been indulging in activities needed to become a taikonaut. He graduated from

Air Force Aviation University The People's Liberation Army Air Force Aviation University () is a military university in Changchun, Jilin, China. As of fall 2014, the university has 7 campuses, consists of 7 departments, covers a total area of , with more than 19,000,000 s ...

in 2012. He is a fourth-level

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

in the Astronaut Corps of the

Chinese People's Liberation Army The People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the military of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the People's Republic of China (PRC). It consists of four Military branch, services—People's Liberation Army Ground Force, Ground Force, People's ...

and is a first class PLA Air Force pilot since 13 years. He once served as the captain of a flying squadron of a certain brigade of the Air Force Aviation Corps, and was thus selected in PLAAF. During this time, he flew six different aircraft and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel in the PLAAF. In September 2020, as an aerospace

flight engineer A flight engineer (FE), also sometimes called an air engineer, is a member of an aircraft's flight crew who is responsible for monitoring and operating its complex aircraft systems. In the early era of aviation, the position was sometimes referr ...

, he was selected in third taikonaut group. He went through strenuous astronaut training like underwater training for EVAs which he cleared off successfully. Tang appreciates photographing. Two years later in June 2022, he was selected as the crew for the crewed mission of Shenzhou 17 as an operator. He flew to

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 ...

on Shenzhou-17 on 26 October 2023 and docked later on the same day. As of now, Tang Shengjie is youngest taikonaut in space.

References

External links

* 1989 births Living people People from Dingxi Shenzhou program People's Liberation Army Astronaut Corps Spacewalkers {{DEFAULTSORT:Shengjie, Tang