No rest in space: Chinese astronauts record their hectic day in station

Chinese astronauts, who arrived at China’s Tiangong space station last week in the country’s longest crewed mission to date, released a video footage of their day on Wednesday. The video documents their 24 hours in the space station. It was aired on China’s national broadcaster Central China Television and was shared on state-facilitated Global Times’ Twitter handle.

See the video here:

The three astronauts in the video are Nie Haisheng, Liu Boming, and Tang Hongbo. They are seen having meals as boxes floated around them. On Wednesday, Chinese President Xi-Jinping talked to the astronauts and expressed gratitude for their contribution.

According to the video, the astronauts begin the day by communicating with the ground control crew at 8 am and work for almost 13 hours till about 9 pm. This is when they give the second update of their progress to the ground crew.

As per Central China television, the men get a day off every week to rest and maintain work balance in the isolated space.

The trio blasted off on a Long March-2F rocket from the Jiuquan launch centre in northwest China’s Gobi desert, and their craft docked around seven hours later at the Tiangong station, where they will spend the next three months.  

The mission’s commander is Nie Haisheng, a decorated air force pilot in the People’s Liberation Army who has already participated in two space missions.