CCTV reported on 23 May that, according to the China Manned Space Engineering Office, the combination of Shenzhou XVI manned spacecraft and the Long March 2F Remote Sixteen Launch Vehicle (RSCV) was transferred to the launch area on the 22nd, and is scheduled to be launched in the next few days at an opportune time.

On May 22, the combination of Shenzhou-16 manned spacecraft and Long March 2F Remote 16 Launch Vehicle was in transit. (Source: Xinhua)

According to China's 2023 manned spaceflight "task list", after the launch of Shenzhou 16 this month, Shenzhou 17 will be launched in October. During this period, there is a special focus of attention, that is, the third batch of Chinese astronauts will be on the stage of the space station, Shenzhou 16 and 17 crew astronauts will appear for the first time in the two categories of flight engineers and load experts.

The third batch of reserve astronauts will be selected in 2020.

According to the news of China Manned Space Engineering Office on 1 October 2020, the selection of the third batch of reserve astronauts for China's manned space engineering project was completed recently, and a total of 18 reserve astronauts (including one woman) were finally selected, including seven space pilots, seven space flight engineers and four load specialists, who will become the new members of China's astronauts team.

According to reports, in order to meet the needs of China's space station project, the third batch of reserve astronauts added two categories of space flight engineers and load experts on the basis of space pilots. Among them, space pilots and space flight engineers are mainly responsible for directly manoeuvring and managing spacecraft, as well as carrying out relevant technical experiments. Load specialists are mainly responsible for the on-orbit operation of space science experiment loads.

Space pilots are selected among active pilots in the Air Force, space flight engineers are selected among engineers and technicians specialising in aerospace engineering and related fields, and payload specialists are selected among scientific researchers in the field of space science research and application of manned space engineering.

It may be the first time to welcome "astronauts" who are not pilots.

At present, the flight crew for Shenzhou 16 has not yet been announced, and according to analysis, it is likely that the three-person crew will remain.

According to reports, since the successful launch of Shenzhou V, China has sent 16 astronauts to space, 26 times, and the first batch of 9 active astronauts and the second batch of 7 astronauts have all been realised. It is expected that the Shenzhou XVI crew will still "bring the old with the new", led by the old generation of astronauts, while there will also be a third batch of astronauts for the first time, which will be one of the biggest attractions of this mission.

If the Shenzhou sixteen and seventeen crew astronauts will appear for the first time flight engineers and load experts of these two categories of personnel, it means that for the first time there will be from the non-pilot origin of the "astronauts" into space to carry out the task.

"Load experts do not require a pilot background.

According to reports, load experts for astronauts according to the task classification of a, refers to the space station in the scientific and applied research and other experimental work of scientific researchers, in simple terms, load experts is to participate in the space experiment operation of the astronauts. With the deepening of space science and technology activities, space science and technology activities are becoming more and more specialised, and so load specialists have come into being. Load experts do not require a pilot background, but must be in the scientific, medical, engineering and other fields of professional training and has a wealth of operational experience, mainly responsible for the operation of the relevant experimental loads.

It is reported that different countries in different stages, the astronauts involved in the operation of space experiments are called different, such as the United States in the Apollo moon landing stage called "scientist astronauts", in the space shuttle stage called "load experts"; Russia in the Mir space station stage called "research astronauts"; the Russian space station stage called "research astronauts". In the United States, they were called "scientist astronauts" during the Apollo moon phase and "load specialists" during the shuttle phase; in Russia, they were called "research astronauts" during the Mir space station phase.

What are the requirements for selecting "load specialists"?

On 2 October 2022, the China Manned Space Engineering Office released a news release saying that in order to meet the needs of the subsequent missions of the manned space engineering project, China's fourth batch of preparatory astronauts selection work has been launched recently. A total of 12 to 14 reserve astronauts will be selected, including about two load experts.

According to reports, candidates for load experts need to have a doctorate degree in a relevant professional field and have been in the relevant industry for not less than three years, and be aged between 30 and 45. The payload specialists are also required to fulfil certain physical requirements, with a height of 162 to 175 centimetres for men and 160 to 175 centimetres for women.