Fifteen Chinese astronauts have just completed desert survival training deep in the Badain Jaran Desert near Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China.

 

15名中国宇航员在酒泉卫星发射中心附近的巴丹吉林沙漠深处完成沙漠生存训练。
 

 

Organized by the Astronaut Center of China (ACC), the program was designed to prepare astronauts with the capacity to survive in the wilderness¹ in the event their re-entry capsule lands off target.

 

Before venturing into space, astronauts have to survive in various hostile environments as a part of their technical training. Wilderness survival training is an important part of astronaut training in space agencies worldwide, leaving space mission candidates stranded² at sea, in deserts, in jungles or on glaciers³.

 

This is the latest survival training activity for Chinese astronauts after their sea survival training with two European astronauts in waters off the coast of Yantai in east China's Shandong Province in August 2017.

 

In the latest training program, each team, all wearing spacesuits, simulated an emergency landing scenario⁴ in which they needed to exit the capsule themselves, report their location and survive in the desert until rescue arrived 48 hours later.

 

In the desert, a land of extremes, the trainees⁵ had to handle the arid⁶ conditions, the daytime heat and cold at night.

 

The desert survival training tested the allocation of emergency supplies so their design can be improved in the future, said Huang Weifen, deputy chief designer at the ACC.

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