China set to send 3 astronauts on longest crewed mission yet

AP NEWS

China is preparing to send three astronauts to live on its space station for six months — a new milestone for a program that has advanced rapidly in recent years.

It will be China’s longest crewed space mission and set a record for the most time spent in space by Chinese astronauts. The Shenzhou-13 spaceship is expected to be launched into space on a Long March-2F rocket early Saturday morning from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on the edge of the Gobi Desert in northwestern China.

The first crew who served a 90-day mission aboard the main Tianhe core module of the space station returned in mid-September.

The new crew has two veterans of space travel. Pilot Zhai Zhigang, 55, performed China’s first spacewalk. Wang Yaping, 41, and the only woman on the mission, carried out experiments and led a science class in real-time while traveling on one of China’s earlier experimental space stations. Ye Guangfu, 41, will be traveling into space for the first time.

The mission is expected to continue the work of the initial crew, who conducted two spacewalks, and deployed a 10-meter (33-foot) mechanical arm.

China Manned Space Agency Deputy Director Lin Xiqiang said the rocket was fueled and ready to fly. “All systems conducting the Shenzhou-13 mission have undergone a comprehensive rehearsal. The flight crew is in good condition and our pre-launch preparations are in order,” Lin said at a Thursday briefing.

The crew’s scheduled activities include up to three spacewalks to install equipment in preparation for expanding the station, verifying living conditions in the module and conducting experiments in space medicine and other areas, Lin said.

China has released few details but says it will send multiple crews to the station over the next two years to make it fully functional. Shenzhou-13 will be the fifth mission, including trips without crews to deliver supplies.

When completed with the addition of two more modules — named Mengtian and Wentian — the station will weigh about 66 tons, a fraction of the size of the International Space Station, which launched its first module in 1998 and will weigh around 450 tons when completed. Lin said the two additional modules would be sent before the end of next year during the stay of the yet-to-be-named Shenzhou-14 crew.

China made plans to build its own space stations in the early 1990s and had two experimental modules before starting on the permanent station.

U.S. law requires congressional approval for contact between the American and Chinese space programs, but China is cooperating with space experts from countries including France, Sweden, Russia and Italy.

Lin said China was expanding such cooperation, with Ye Guangfu having undergone training with the European Space Agency in 2016, and European astronauts participating in China’s sea survival training in 2017.

“We welcome astronauts from other countries entering our space station and conducting international cooperation,” Lin said. “We believe that after the station enters the operation and utilization phase, more foreign astronauts will visit our station.”

China has launched seven crewed missions with a total of 14 astronauts aboard since 2003, when it became only the third country after the former Soviet Union and the United States to put a person in space on its own. Two Chinese astronauts have flown twice.

Along with its crewed missions, China has expanded its work on lunar and Mars exploration, including placing a rover on the little-explored far side of the Moon and returning lunar rocks to Earth for the first time since the 1970s.

China this year also landed its Tianwen-1 space probe on Mars, whose accompanying Zhurong rover has been exploring for evidence of life on the red planet.

1.milestone

表示“里程碑；重大事件；转折点”，英文解释为“an important event in the development or history of something or in someone's life”举个🌰：

He felt that moving out of his parents' home was a real milestone in his life.

他感到搬出父母家是他一生中一个真正的转折点。

2.crew

1）作名词，表示“全体船员；全体机务人员”，英文解释为“The crew of a ship, an aircraft, or a spacecraft is the people who work on and operate it.”举个🌰：

The mission for the crew of the space shuttle is essentially over.

航天飞机全体机务人员的使命基本完成。

2）作名词，表示“一组工作人员”，英文解释为“A crew is a group of people with special technical skills who work together on a task or project.”如：a two-man film crew making a documentary 一个制作纪录片的两人摄制组。

3）作动词，表示“当船员；充当…的船员”，英文解释为“If you crew a boat, you work on it as part of the crew.”举个🌰：

This neighbour crewed on a ferryboat. 

这位邻居在一艘渡船上当船员。

3.veteran

veteran /ˈvetərən/表示“老手，（在某方面）经验丰富的人”，英文解释为“someone who has had a lot of experience of a particular activity”，如：veteran leader/veteran journalist/actor/goalkeeper etc 资深领袖/资深记者/资深演员/经验丰富的守门员等。

4.deploy

1) 表示“利用，调动（尤指想法、论据等）”，英文解释为“to use something for a particular purpose, especially ideas, arguments etc”，如：a job in which a variety of professional skills will be deployed 要用到多项专业技术的工作。

2) 表示“部署，调度（士兵、军事装备等）”，英文解释为“to organize or move soldiers, military equipment etc so that they are in the right place and ready to be used”，如：deploy forces/troops/weapons etc，NATO's decision to deploy cruise missiles 北约要部署巡航导弹的决定。

5.fraction

表示“少量”，英文解释为“A fraction of something is a tiny amount or proportion of it.”举个🌰：

She hesitated for a fraction of a second before responding.

她犹豫了一下才回应。

6.undergo

表示“经历，经受，遭受”，英文解释为“if you undergo a change, an unpleasant experience etc, it happens to you or is done to you”举个🌰：

He underwent major surgery in 2020.

他在2020年时动过大手术。

7.probe

在恏渏 亾類哋夲能文中提到了probe作名词有“探索；探查；查究；调查”的意思，英文解释为“an attempt to discover information by asking a lot of questions”，如：an FBI probe into corruption 联邦调查局对腐败的调查；也可以指“（医生或科学家用的）探针”，英文解释为“a long thin metal instrument that doctors and scientists use to examine parts of the body”。

📍此处probe解释为“探测器”，英文解释为：a device that is put inside something to test or record information. 如：a space probe 航天探测器/太空探测器。

🎬电影《像素大战》（Pixels）中的台词提到：That videotape will be placed in a space probe录影带将放在太空探测器中。

此外，也可以作动词：

1）表示“调查；探寻”，英文解释为“If you probe into something, you ask questions or try to discover facts about it.”举个🌰：

The more they probed into his background, the more inflamed their suspicions would become.

他们越深入调查他的背景，对他的怀疑就会越强烈。

2）表示“用探针探查”，英文解释为“If a doctor or dentist probes, he or she uses a long instrument to examine part of a patient's body.”举个🌰：

He probed around the sensitive area.

他在敏感部位周围做了探查。

8.accompanying

表示“伴随的，陪伴的；和…一起发生（或存在）的”，英文解释为“appearing or going with someone or something else”。

总结：

1.served a 90-day mission aboard the main Tianhe core module of the space station 

2. set to（to begin working）

2 crewed mission

3 milestone/ watershed/ turning point/ game-changing event

4 spaceship/ spacecraft/space shuttle

5 set a record for / record-smashing

6 launch a spaceship on a rocket

7 veteran （experienced）

8 space travel / space flight / space walk

10 deploy/ install 

11 mechanical / technical 机械的/技术的

12 be in good condition/ be in order  状态良好/准备就绪

13 verify（check）

14 be functional / enter operation

15 yet-to-be-named尚未命名的

16 the third country after A and B

17  little-explored 鲜有人涉足的