Astronauts' autographs:
The Tiangong-1/Shenzhou-9 space mission delegation presents a picture of the three astronauts with their autographs to Chinese University Vice-Chancellor Prof Joseph Sung.
Astronauts' autographs:
The Tiangong-1/Shenzhou-9 space mission delegation presents a picture of the three astronauts with their autographs to Chinese University Vice-Chancellor Prof Joseph Sung.
Astronauts take students' culinary quiz
August 12, 2012
The Tiangong-1/Shenzhou-9 space mission delegation met with local tertiary students at Chinese University of Hong Kong this afternoon, to share details of their 13-day space journey.
The students were interested not only in space technology, but also curious about what the astronauts ate onboard their spacecraft.
Astronaut Jing Haipeng told them he appreciated the tasty and nutritious food prepared by experts based on their preferences. He said he likes spicy food, so chili sauce was always added to his food. They even enjoyed scrambled eggs with shrimps while in orbit.
As fresh fruit is hard to preserve, they eat dried fruit in space. He added that while space food they ate was delicious, he would also enjoy eating Hong Kong delicacies in flight.
When asked about future plans, all three astronauts said they were prepared to travel into space again. Astronauts Liu Wang and Liu Yang said it was not only their responsibility but their honour to conduct missions. Mr Liu said he is prepared to travel to space, to the moon and to Mars whenever the country needs him.
Mr Jing said his career is in manned space missions and he is ready to take up the challenge of traveling to space for a third time.
The students also asked whether Hong Kong people might be chosen to join the space mission in future. Delegation leader Niu Hongguang said they plan to build a national laboratory in space, and will recruit outstanding scientists and engineers to conduct experiments there. Hong Kong people may be among their targets.
He added that they are looking forward to collaborationg more with scientific research organisations and universities in Hong Kong.
