BEIJING – China will begin selection for the next generation of astronautswho will train to work on the country’s planned space station, according toMonday’s China Daily.
Yang Liwei, deputy director of the China Manned Space Agency and the firstChinese astronaut in space, was quoted as saying the selection work willbegin soon and that Chinese scientists and engineers will be eligible toapply.
“We plan to select suitable candidates from space industry companies,research entities and universities and train them into engineers andpayload specialists capable of working on the space station,” he saidduring an open day at Beijing’s Astronaut Center of China.
“Those who want to apply for an engineer’s post will need a master’sdegree, while candidates for payload specialists will need a doctoraldegree,” he said. “They will also have at least three years of workexperience.”
The country is developing and building parts of a manned space station andplans to start assembling it in space in 2020.
The station is scheduled to become fully operational around 2022, accordingto the report.