China Focus: The sky-high dreams of Shenzhou-11 astronaut Chen Dong

Chen Dong is about to embark on his first space mission early Monday.

When flying aircraft, he often wondered what it would be like to push through the Earth's atmosphere, he recalled.

He will soon find out. The 38-year-old aviator is one half of the two-member team for the Shenzhou-11 manned space mission.

Chen will work with Jing Haipeng and dock with China's Tiangong-2 space lab, where they will work for 30 days.

Recruited as an astronaut in 2010, Chen is proud of being selected.

"I'm so excited that my space dream will soon come true," he told Xinhua, "but I must remain calm because I need to focus on my mission."

In addition to his responsibilities as a taikonaut, Chen will also be a Xinhua space correspondent, covering the mission and answering netizens' questions, all of which will be shared by Xinhua with the world.

BEST CANDIDATE

"I am the best person for the Shenzhou-11 mission," Chen said.

When compared with his peers, especially Ye Guangfu, who completed a European Space Agency (ESA) underground training mission in Italy in July, Chen, while lauding his excellence, said, "crew members are selected for being the most suitable for each mission."

He will never forget that it was his "hero" Yang Liwei, China's first astronaut, who interviewed him during his astronaut recruitment process.

Jing Haipeng, commander of the Shenzhou-11 mission, said the two men are very similar and have worked very well together throughout the six year training period.

"I'm very, very satisfied with him as my teammate," he said.

Jing described Chen as quiet, careful and hard-working. "Chen is a perfectionist. He never leaves problems unsolved," he said, recalling that Chen wrote down two extra answers to a question during his exam.

FIRST-TIMER

Chen, along with Jing, will become the first Chinese astronauts to fly the highest in space, as they will dock 393 kilometers above ground level.

The first-timer is looking forward to seeing Earth from space, but his mind is more occupied by the mission at hand.

"I have many responsibilities during the mission," Chen said, "I'm driver, navigator, scientist, farmer, mechanic, and, not to mention, a janitor -- after all we must keep the spacecraft clean."

LOVING FATHER

Chen was born in Luoyang City, central China's Henan Province. He joined the People's Liberation Army in 1997 and is a first-grade Air Force pilot. Before being enlisted as an astronaut, he had clocked 1,500 hours of safe flight time.

Chen is married and has five-year-old twin sons.

He likes to read, but with such a tight training schedule, he spends most of his spare time with his family. When he is at home, he loves to tell stories to his kids.

"My sons may be too young to understand what I do, but they do like the moon and stars," he said.

He tells them that daddy is just like Astro Boy, the robot hero, and can fly up high in the sky.

"Before I leave, I will tell them to look up at the sky and wave to the stars, and daddy will be up there waving back at them," he said. Endi