5.ESA √@esa • 6 h
Congratulations to the China National Space Administration on the launch of three 'taikonauts' on their Shenzhou 12 mission to the Tianhe (Heavenly Harmony) space station.
On June 17
th, 2021, in their Tweets to congratulate China on the launch of three "taikonauts" on their Shenzhou Ⅶ mission to outer space, both the European Space Agency and Roscosmos used the word"taikonauts".
With the Greek word "naut", which means sailor, and "taiko", which comes from taikong, the Chinese word for space, the word "taikonaut" is specifically used for Chinese astronauts.
Yet "taikonaut" is more than just a word. Its history shows that of China's space journey. Started in 1992, the manned spacecraft engineering (载人航天工程) of China was far behind the USA and Russia in the beginning 6 years later, the word "taikonaut" was created by Chiew Lee Yih, a Chinese Malaysian. who used it first in newsgroups. However, back then few people picked up on it, as China was still rather weak at that time.
It was not until 2003, when China sent Yang Liwei, the first taikonaut into space taking the Shenzhou V. that the word became widely known. In his speech at Peking University on Friday, Yang told stories ahout that and shared how much is required of the taikonauts to prepare them for their missions.
Since 1998, China has 34 trained taikonauts, each of whom has passed tests that are usually unimaginably difficult. According to reports. , they are all chosen from top polots, engineers and scientists, and must pass a lot of test before becoming a real taikonaut.
Behind these taikonauts are hundreds of thousands of other workers that do their jobs to get the taikonauts into space and make certain of their safe return. It is the great efforts of everyone in this project that has made "taikonaut" from just a word on the paper into the reality, and all of them should share the honor of the taikonauts' tasks. The meanings of the word will he further developed and we hope more taikonauts will appear.