Astronauts Fei Junlong (L) and Nie Haisheng (R) are seen making last-minute preparations before boarding the spacecraft.

　　Profile

　　Fei was born in Kunshan, Jiangsu Province in May 1965. He joined the army in June 1982. Fei studied in the No. 9 Aviation School and Changchun No.1 Flight College of the PLA Air Force successively. In October 1984 he was assigned to serve as fighter pilot in the No. 5 Aviation School of the PLA Air Force. In September 1985, Fei graduated from the No. 5 Aviation School with straight-A and retained by the School as a faculty member. Fei successively served as school instructor and squadron leader before he was selected as astronaut candidate in January 1998.

　　Fei is 170 cm in height and 64 kg in weight. His hobby: fine arts.

　　"Since it is a path of my own choice, I will stride bravely forward forever."

　　I had admired servicemen since I was a child. I once made many five-pointed stars with iron sheets, and painted them with red paint before fixed them to all to my hats.

　　When the PLA Air Force recruited pilots in 1982, I signed up without prior consultation with my parents. After mydriatic in the physical check-up, I had to wear sunglass when I went home. After being closely questioned by my mother, the cat was finally out of the bag.

　　My father then said to me: "Since it is your own choice, you must not regret in the future."

　　Since then my father's words has always accompanied me. I think I have made the right choice.

　　Since it's a path chosen by myself, I must forge ahead bravely!

　　"I quit smoking from that day as I want to be an astronaut."

　　It was in June 1996, when I first heard the term of astronaut, I was with my unit carrying out a mission in Xinjiang. The training department of my unit told me that someone had come to recruit probationary astronaut candidates. I signed up to try my luck.

　　As pilots have to be keyed up during their flight, most pilots have the smoking habit. One day, when my wife saw our house was filled with cigarette smoke when she returned home, she reproached me. I said to her with smile: "I intend to quit smoking, so please let me satisfy my craving for the last time." My wife replied: "If you really want to be an astronaut, you must quit right now!"

　　I nipped the stub in the ashtray. Since then I have never touched cigarette. The reason is: I want to be an astronaut.

　　"I want to be an outstanding astronaut like Yang Liwei, and come to the fore in the next selection."

　　In fact, when astronaut for Shenzhou V was selected, my performance was not bad, as I was among the top 5 astronauts. I was somewhat disappointed when I failed to be selected. When Yang Liwei was flying in the space, I was performing my duty in the command hall and watching the orbiting trace of Yang Liwei's spaceship. When he flew back safely, tears streamed down my cheeks.

　　From then on, I decided to perform as excellent as Yang Liwei and strived to cometo the fore in the next selection!

　　Before long, the selection of astronauts for Shenzhou VI started. The characteristics of the mission were: There will be more than one astronaut to fly together in space for several days in a spacecraft made of several capsules, and the training had been carried out centering on these characteristics.

　　In the head-in-lower-position training, we had to lie flat on a special "plank bed s" with our feet higher than our heads for five full days. Due to the limited space, our feet could not curl up, and we had to answer the call of nature on our "beds", just like seriously sick persons. Sometimes we wanted to do some reading, but we simply could not concentrate our minds as our heads were congested with blood and our eyes swelled.

　　Even our routine meals had some problems. With our bodies being in that state, we had difficulty to swallow food, as the food went up instead of going down into our stomach.

　　For Shenzhou VI space program, astronauts must enter orbital capsule for the first time, thus to climb from one capsule into another was one of the focus of our training. We drilled over and over, and our underwears were soaked by sweat.

　　"Generation after generation of spaceflight workers burn themselves out like rockets in order to send us into the outer space."

　　Preliminary selection, second round selection, and then final selection…I cooperated tacitly and harmoniously with Nie Haisheng. Even a glance of our eyes could pass on the message correctly to each other. Our instructors' comment is: The combination of us two has realized "1 plus 1 is larger than 2". Finally the final selection was over, the scores shown on computer screen were: Nie Haisheng and I ranked first!

　　The motherland has granted me my long-expected opportunity. I have waited for this opportunity for seven years! Although the possibility of my being selected is only 7%, I felt I enjoy 200% of happiness and joy. Because the "one" here is a collective concept, as it not only include myself, but all those who have made their due contributions to China's spaceflight program.

　　I couldn't fall asleep on that evening when the result of selection was announced. One scene after another occurred in the past 7 years flashed across my mind. For decades, generation after generation of spaceflight workers have burned themselves out just like rockets in order to send us into the outer space.

　　On the day when I perform my space flight mission, I think I would not have time to pour my heart out, yet one word I must say on that day: My motherland and my fellow Chinese people, you can rest assured, I'll not let you down!

　　By Zhao Bo, Liu Bing and Mou Jiajin

　　(Oct. 13, PLA Daily)