The China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSEO) has officially announced the crew for the upcoming Shenzhou-20 manned spaceflight mission. The team includes seasoned astronaut Chen Dong, who will serve as the mission commander, alongside Chen Zhongrui and Wang Jie, both of whom are embarking on their first spaceflight.

Wang Jie, a distinguished alumnus of Beihang University, earned his master’s and doctoral degrees in Engineering Mechanics from the School of Aeronautic Science and Engineering. Before his selection as an astronaut, Wang Jie worked as an engineer at the China Academy of Space Technology under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.

Born in September 1989 in Bayannur, Inner Mongolia, Wang Jie joined the Communist Party of China in June 2009 and enlisted in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in January 2021. Currently holding the rank of lieutenant colonel, he serves as a fourth-level astronaut in the PLA Astronaut Corps. Wang Jie was selected as part of China’s third batch of astronauts in September 2020 and, following rigorous evaluations, was chosen for the Shenzhou-20 mission.

Wang Jie is the third doctoral graduate from Beihang University to participate in a space mission. Liu Wang, a crew member of the Shenzhou-9 mission, earned his Ph.D. in Man-machine and Environmental Engineering from Beihang University in 2017. Gui Haichao, a payload specialist for the Shenzhou-16 mission, is a professor at the School of Astronautics and completed his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral studies in Aircraft Design at the university.

Editor: Lyu Xingyun