Shenzhou-10 crew (from left) Wang Yaping, Nie Haisheng and Zhang Xiaoguang during their arrival at Tiangong-1 Space Station. (Photo : Google)
Three Chinese astronauts shared their desire to work with overseas counterparts on future space missions and hoped to have access to the International Space Station during an exclusive interview at CNN's "Inside Space City" on Friday.
Nie Haisheng, crew commander of Shenzhou-10, together with crew members Zhang Xiaoguang and Wang Yaping, seated with "Inside Space City" host David McKenzie and shared the team's perspectives regarding their extraordinary job.
"As an astronaut, I have a very strong desire to fly space missions with astronauts from other countries. And I look forward to the opportunity to go to the International Space Station," Nie said.
The International Space Station is a microgravity and space environment research laboratory and is a joint venture by the United States, Russia, Canada, Japan and the European Space Agency.
However, China was prohibited to join the project due to a law passed by the U.S. in 2011.
"Of course China is building its own space station. I also hope astronauts from other countries can one day come to China to fly to our own station," the commander added.
Chinese Space Station, also known as Tiangong Space Station, is China's planned space headquarters to be placed in Low Earth orbit (LEO) under the country's space program.
Established in Sept. 1992, the space program has already launched 10 spacecraft named Shenzhou, translated as "Divine Craft" or "Magic Boat," and five of them were manned missions.
Shenzou-10 is China's fifth and most recent manned spaceflight mission launched in June 2013 and was operated by Nie, Zhang and Wang.
Commander Nie, 50, was the flight engineer on the Shenzhou-6 flight launched in Oct. 2005 which lasted less than five days, was selected to be the commander of the backup crew for the Shenzhou-9 mission, and became the country's first officer to hold the general rank in the course of the Shenzhou-10 mission.
Wang, 35, on the other hand, is China's second female astronaut and was proclaimed as the second Chinese woman in space after Liu Yang.
"When I looked out of the window for the first time, I realized the true meaning of the power of life, that kind of beauty was just beyond comprehension. It is like a woman's role in the family. Women have responsibilities. We also make serious missions more lively and pleasant," Wang told CNN, adding that women astronauts weigh less and are more economical to the mission.
The mission's "official cameraman," Zhang Xiaoguang, 48, has waited for eight astronauts to go to space before his turn.
"When I learned the news I wasn't calm, because I had gone through so much and many things that had happened in the past made it impossible for me to remain calm," Zhang explained his feeling when he was chosen for the mission.
"We were in space and confined to such a small place, we needed a friendly atmosphere even more to make our work and life enjoyable," said Zhang.
The three astronauts had spent 15 days in space. It was considered to be the nation's longest space operation by Chinese astronauts.
