China oceanauts set for astronaut training

Oceanauts recruited to operate deep-sea submersibles will soon receive training fit for astronauts as China pushes its dual ambitions to reach further up and under.

The National Deep Sea Center (NDSC) and the Astronaut Center of China on Thursday signed an agreement to cooperate in training personnel and researching science and technology projects.

"Operators in both manned deep-sea diving and manned space flights need to endure highly similar pressures and risks, and the cooperation will have a pivotal impact on personnel selection, training and project research in extreme environments," said Yang Liwei, vice director of the China Manned Space Engineering Office, and also the country's first astronaut.

Under the agreement, the astronaut training center will host oceanauts for one month per year from 2014 to 2016 and hone both their physical fitness and knowledge.

The NDSC manages China's Jiaolong manned deep-sea submersible program and supervises the selection and training of oceanauts for the project. They include two veterans and six recruits selected in December last year.

Jiaolong, China's first manned deep-sea submersible, reached 7,062 meters in the Pacific's Mariana Trench in a dive in June 2012, making it possible for the country to conduct deep-sea exploration in 99.8 percent of the world's oceans. It is now returning from a scientific expedition in the Pacific Ocean.

Meanwhile, China has conducted four space missions since 2011, including sending space lab Tiangong-1 into orbit and the rendezvous and docking of Tiangong-1 with spacecraft Shenzhou-10.

Launching a cargo ship into space, completing a space station and sending men to the moon are all on the country's space agenda.

With the training due to kick off in August, NDSC director Yu Hongjun expected the sea-sky partnership to help build a mature training mechanism for China's oceanauts.