16 October 2016
Chinese astronaut Jing Haipeng is about to become the first Chinese to go into space for a third time, as he was selected to be commander of the upcoming Shenzhou-11 manned space mission. Jing will work with fellow taikonaut Chen Dong and dock with China's Tiangong 2 space lab, where they will live and work for 30 days. Jing was involved in the Shenzhou 7 mission in 2008, when astronaut Zhai Zhigang completed China's historic first spacewalk. In 2012, he was also the commander of Shenzhou 9, China's first manned space docking mission. The 50-year-old astronaut is also about to set another two records: Clocking more than 45 days of spaceflight, making him the only Chinese astronaut to have traveled in space for this length of time. He and Chen will also fly higher than any other Chinese astronaut, as their rendezvous with Tiangong 2 will be around 393 kilometers above ground level.
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