- Gordon Dumoulin
Chinese astronauts from space with African students...
Three Chinese astronauts, Chen Dong, Liu Yang and Cai Xuzhe had a dialogue with students from eight African countries via video link from the Tiangong Space Station last Tuesday.
The astronauts who are currently on a 6 months mission (Shenzhou 14 mission) in the first core module Tianhe of China's space station talked about their life and duties in the space station and answered questions from students from Algeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, Somalia and South Africa.
The event, co-hosted by the Mission of China to the African Union (AU), China Manned Space Agency (CMS) and the African Union Commission (AUC), was live streamed on CGTN digital platforms.
"It is said that you can see the Great Wall from space. Can you see the Sahara Desert and Mount Kilimanjaro from the Tiangong space station?" an Algerian student asked.
"Actually, we cannot see the Great Wall from space. However, when we are above the African continent on a clear day, we can see the Sahara and Kilimanjaro through the porthole. We can also see some big cities. Particularly at night, brightly-lit cities are easy to see," Astronaut Chen answered.
Lin Xiqiang, deputy director of CMS, introduced China's space station to the audience in a video message at the event. "The Tiangong space station belongs to China, and it also belongs to the world. It will be an open platform for people worldwide to explore the universe and conduct scientific research,"
Hu Changchun, ambassador of Mission of China to the AU, said collaboration in the space sector has become a highlight of China-Africa cooperation, and the two sides have achieved fruitful results in cooperation in areas such as satellite launches, construction of aerospace infrastructure, sharing of satellite resources, and joint research and development of satellites.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the AU, and this event "Talk with the Taikonauts" is one of the activities celebrating the occasion.
#multilaterlism #inclusiveness #globalsouth #spacestation #spaceexploration #africa #africanunion #aerospace
Sources, livestream and pictures :
https://english.news.cn/20220908/3b0dfe4701a5482185714da8e4854cfc/c.html