The newspaper reported that on last Monday (May 20) a space official revealed more details on the tightly guarded yuhangyuan training program in a public lecture held in Shanghai as part of the weeklong National Science and Technology Week.

Meanwhile the media widely reported a day earlier (May 19) the manned space project updates that two space officials provided in Beijing. The officials pronounced that the manned space project, including the design and construction of the Shenzhou spacecraft, was wholly "Made In China".

Liu Zongying, Chief Designer of the Shenzhou Propulsion Module at the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST, formerly the Shanghai Bureau of Astronautics), said in Shanghai that 14 yuhangyuans were in the final phase of rigorous operational and physical training at the Beijing Aerospace City.

"The degree of toughness [of the training] isn't what general people could imagine," Liu stressed. Liu had participated in training the yuhangyuans in some of the courses there.

Liu said that two of the 14 yuhangyuans had received training in Russia.

This is believed to be the first time that a Chinese space official confirms such kind of training its yuhangyuans had acquired from the northern neighbour.

The number of yuhangyuans that Liu cited is two more than the previous officially announced number. Up until May 18 when two other space officials discussed the manned space project in public lectures at the opening of the Science and Technology Week in Beijing, the official number of the current yuhangyuan corps was a dozen.

The identity of these yuhangyuans remains unknown. Even most personnel involved in the space program have not seen their photos.

Thus far the only official and publicly acknowledged appearance of the yuhangyuans to personnel outside the training program was in late March at the Shenzhou-3 (SZ-3) launch. Reportedly twelve yuhangyuans were at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre (JSLC) to see the SZ-3 liftoff and rehearsed emergency escape on the launch pad .

Space officials selected this group of yuhangyuans from 2,000 middle ranking Air Force pilots. According to Liu the yuhangyuans are around 30 years old, about 1.7m tall and 50kg in weight.

Deputy Chief Designers of SZ-3 Wang Zhuang and Zheng Songhui, who spoke in Beijing on Saturday, said that the yuhangyuans were all male fighter or attacker pilots.

The designers said that the yuhangyuan selection process was very rigorous. The two minimum requirements among the many selection criteria are height and age. The manned space program prefers candidates who are between 1.6 and 1.7m in height and 25 to 36 years old.

Liu explained that shorter persons would be more agile in the limited space inside the Shenzhou capsule than taller persons, while the restriction in weight would prevent overloading. Even the seats in Shenzhou would be made specific to the figure of each yuhangyuan.

"Made In China" Manned Space Project

Information on other aspects of the manned space project is also scarce.

For example, it was only in March last year that the first and only image of the new spacesuit was released. Even the basic dimensions and parameters of the Shenzhou spacecraft and its Changzheng-2F (Long March-2F) launcher were not officially published until the SZ-3 launch.

The similarity of the Shenzhou Descent Module to the Russian Soyuz capsule, and the Chinese spacesuit to the current generation of the Russian Sokol spacesuit drew questions to the claim that these were original Chinese designs.

Wang and Zheng vehemently defended the Chinese designs of both items.

To counter the rumours that the Shenzhou Descent Module copied the design of Soyuz or simply purchased from the Russian, Wang emphasized: "The Russian spacecraft descent module has a diameter of 2.2m, but ours reaches 2.5m. ... From the design to the material, [it is] completely Made In China". Wang uttered the words 'Made In China' in English.

Zheng added, "In future the spacesuit that our yuhangyuans don and the space food that they will consume are all Made In China". He also articulated the words 'Made In China' in English.

Their comments drew warm applause from the audience.

Wang said that China independently researched and used its own material to make the spacesuit, at a cost of several tens of millions of dollars renminbi (RMB, about several million U.S. dollars). If the cost of research was factored in, the spacesuit would cost several hundred million dollars RMB (about several ten million U.S. dollars).

The two designers said that in the event Shenzhou sprang a pressure leak, yuhangyuans would have ten minutes to don the spacesuits that would give them breathing air and immediate protection. The aerospace publication China Space News described on April 12 that it would take a yuhangyuan three minutes to don the spacesuit under normal circumstances.

The officials also discussed living and working conditions on Shenzhou.

Liu said that personal hygiene would still be very important in space.

Yuhangyuans would be able to shower in a sealed plastic sack, and change their single-use undergarment everyday.

Yuhangyuans would sleep in sleeping bags that are mounted on the walls of the spacecraft. During working hours the Commander would work in the Descent Module while the other two yuhangyuans would work in the Orbital Module. The Orbital Module is at the front of Shenzhou and measures 2.8m in length and 2.25m in diameter.

If a yuhangyuan falls ill, the crew could press a special button to initiate an emergency return.

Liu said that the meal menu would be quite abundant, with 20 items to choose from. But the space food would be in the form of dehydrated "compressed bricks" and "toothpaste-type tubes". After adding appropriate amount of water, the dehydrated food would be restored to its original flavour.

But a scientist involved in the space food research and production told China Space News (CSN) that the "toothpaste-type" food was "no longer in the mainstream".

CSN reporters saw several tens of different kinds of space food at the research institution. Examples of space food include canned fish and meat, dehydrated rice, curry rice, and seafood such as prawns sealed in silver pouches.

As Chinese enjoy drinking tea, icy red tea and green tea are available as regular drinks in addition to orange juice. However, the drinks are in solid chunks so yuhangyuans would need to mix them with water in order to consume the beverage.

There are also dehydrated fruits, such as dried strawberries, apples, bananas and peaches, whose water content is removed through freeze dry.

Wang, who had tried the space food, spoke of its quality: "Still not as good as our usual [food], but guarantee high energy and nutritional."

However, CSN reporters gave the space food an excellent rating in taste.

The food scientist who toured the reporters said that nutritional value would not be too important initially since the early manned missions would be of short duration.

The food scientist added that a small-scale space food production line had been established. The line won't enter the stage of large-scale production until manned missions occur.

According to the scientist, samples of space food were part of the payload on the SZ-3 mission.

The scientist pointed out that the yuhangyuans who were in training did not eat space food in their regular meals. To ensure that they have sufficient nutrition and strength in their training, each yuhangyuan has a daily meal allowance of about $100 RMB (US$12).

Dummy Passengers On Unmanned Test Flights

China's manned space project is following a similar course that the former Soviet Union and the U.S. had charted in the early stage of their respective programs. One of the significant differences in the Chinese program is the use of dummies instead of live animals on unmanned test missions of Shenzhou.

Wang explained that China began its manned spaceflight test from a higher starting point. As the former Soviet Union and the U.S. had shown that an organism could live in a microgravity environment, he reasoned that China could skip the stage of launching live animals on its unmanned test flights.

Wang elaborated that the body mass and metabolic rate of an animal would be smaller than a human, therefore data obtained from missions with live animals would not be entirely applicable to a human flight.

The dummies that were passengers on the unmanned missions of Shenzhou were rigged with sensors, which could transmit data back to Earth in realtime.

Wang said that in fact the most important experiment on the SZ-3 mission was that involving the dummies. Data returned from the three dummies on the mission indicated that their conditions were nominal. The three dummies have similar figures, blood pressures, pulses and even voices as the yuhangyuans who are in training.

Mystique Of Yuhangyuans

The lack of information on the yuhangyuan corps has created an aura of mystique, even for space program personnel.

From Monday to Friday these yuhangyuans live away from home; at the Beijing Aerospace City in a restricted area that China Space News terms "the most secretive, like separated by a 'vacuum' ". Yuhangyuans receive all kinds of training uninterrupted in this area, which Aerospace City personnel called the "Red Chamber".

Military personnel heavily guard the "Red Chamber". If anyone attempts to peek inside or take photographs, the guards would politely ask the person to leave immediately.

The yuhangyuans only get to spend time with their wives and children at home on the weekend.

Yet their status as "national treasure" does not bring them luxurious houses as their residences outside the Aerospace City. They live in ordinary apartments, like families of other Aerospace City workers. The size of their apartments is comparable to that of a cadre as a division commander.

A majority of the wives of the yuhangyuans work in the same unit as their husbands, so their residences are among the cluster of apartments that are not far from the "Red Chamber".

Like their husbands, the wives also have a strong sense of keeping confidential information. They would not reveal any information about the work of their husbands and the manned space program.

Despite their daily presence in the Aerospace City, other workers don't know who are the yuhangyuans among the many people who work there.

Even when the yuhangyuans leave the "Red Chamber" to go to other parts of the Aerospace City, special-purpose vehicles would drive them to their destinations. When the yuhangyuans leave the Aerospace City to attend outside activities, there will be police escort to lead the way.

On weekends, the yuhangyuans would wear plain clothes and are free to walk or ride a bicycle within the Aerospace City.

Aside from having superior technical skills, these yuhangyuans also have rich artistic and athletic talents.

A technician with the environment protection of the manned space project recalled that in a singing contest two years ago, the yuhangyuan chorus performed very well. One of the yuhangyuans in the chorus had been a lead singer previously.

With routine rigorous physical training and a strong physique, the yuhangyuans easily captured all the gold medals in an athletic meet within the unit.

Reportedly some of the yuhangyuans also have outstanding business management and leadership ability.

The First Chinese "Yuri Gagarin"

A manager with the yuhangyuan training program said that in training each yuhangyuan would use his action to actively strive for a spot on the first crew. "There is a very thick atmosphere of 'competing for Number One' among them," said the manager.

A space official had said previously that the names of the historic crew would not be disclosed until moments before the liftoff. The official reason was that an early disclosure would "cause a psychological strain on the yuhangyuans, which would lead to a degradation in skill."

Even with three unmanned test flights of Shenzhou completed, space officials have said that there is no concrete timeline on when the first manned mission may take place.

But designer Wang Zhuang is confident that it would happen before 2005.

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