Gui Haichao became the country's first payload expert (载荷专家) in space and the first Chinese civilians (平民) to go on a space flight. He went into space in the Shenzhou-16 together with Jing Haipeng and Zhu Yangzhu. They set out for the space station from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert.
Gui's interest in science started when he was a child. He read a lot about space from a set of books he had at home. After finishing his studies at Beihang University, Gui went to Canada to do research and wrote many papers. Since then, he had been working at Beihang University as a teacher. In 2018, China planned to choose its third group of astronauts. Gui was chosen and went through really hard training for his body and mind. He even had to learn how to deal with high G-force during his training. Gui and his team also went to the Badain Jaran Desert in northwest China to learn living skills. They had to collect water and repair their tools in very difficult situations. During the training, Gui's shoes broke and he had to walk on the hot sand for two hours, which was very painful.
The Shenzhou-16 is the first crewed mission (载人任务) since China's space station entered its application (应用) and development stage. Gui Haichao is a member of the team, and he did lots of research to help scientists learn more about space. "I'm sure we can finish the mission successfully," he said.
