In-orbit mission crew gives Guiyang pupils special course

Guiyang students listen to the special course given by Chinese astronauts from space at the Guizhou Science and Technology Museum. [Photo/Guiyang news network]

Students at the Guiyang Affiliated School to East China Normal University – located in Guiyang, capital of Southwest China's Guizhou province – were given a special course on how to be astronauts, presented on Dec 9 by the mission crew of the Shenzhou XIII spacecraft, who are currently in space.

During the course, astronauts Wang Yaping, Zhai Zhigang and Ye Guangfu gave a presentation to the students on their daily work routine and living environment and demonstrated several experiments from the space.

Teachers collected student questions – like how do you get to become an astronaut, how do astronauts sleep in space and how rockets are sent to space – before the course, so they could be put to the mission crew.

It's been eight years since the last time Chinese astronauts gave courses from the space. It is also the first time that such a course has been given from the Tiangong space station.

The course is expected to raise teenagers' interest in science and cultivate their interest in space travel.