Fei, 40, considered perhaps China's most elite pilot, hails from the southern province of Jiangsu and impressed his peers in 1992 when he successfully made an emergency landing when his jet was short of fuel during a test flight.

"His courage, skill and cool and calm mindset won him a special grade in piloting at the age of 32," Xinhua news agency said.

Fei was recruited as a trainee by China's air force while still at high school in 1982 and graduated two years later with excellent marks, it said.

In January 1998, he was selected out of more than 1,500 pilots as a member of the astronaut brigade of the People's Liberation Army, together with Yang Liwei, who in 2003 became China's first man in space when he orbited the earth 14 times during a 21-hour mission.

Fei was on the shortlist of five candidates who underwent final intensive training for that mission -- Shenzhou V.

His partner on Shenzhou VI is Nie Haisheng, 41, who was among the three finalists for the historic flight two years ago that put China alongside the United States and former Soviet Union as the only countries to send a man into space.

Nie was born into an impoverished rural family in central China's Hubei province and struggled through school because his family could barely afford his tuition fees, Xinhua quoted his primary school teacher as saying.

Nie was described by Yang Liwei as a "dauntless" and "prudent" man.

"He doesn't talk much. He is a hard-working and cooperative guy," Yang said.

Nie entered the flight training school of the Chinese air force in 1982 and he too was commended for his courage when he averted a potential air disaster by "risking his life" to safely land a plane in 1989.

Having fulfilled his childhood dream to fly, he said the hardest part of fulfilling his dream to go into space was having to persuade his wife to endorse it because of her worries for his safety.

"I did a hell of a lot of talking to her and helped her more often with housework to win her over," Nie said, according to Xinhua.

The two astronauts apparently have very different personalities -- with Fei being the extrovert and Nie being the introvert -- although they said they are "happy together."

Yang achieved instant celebrity as China's first man in space, receiving rock star treatment as the nation and its people brimmed with pride and patriotism.

China paraded him overseas and he met the likes of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.

On their return to earth in five days, Fei and Nie will no doubt face similar adulation, going into China's history as national heroes who propelled the country into a new age of space discovery.

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