I am a reporter and I feel privileged to have been a witness to history being made.Every time I watch taikonauts salute as the rocket carries them thunders away and flies toward the skies,my heart beats faster and my eyes begin to moisten.

When Yang Liwei,a former fighter jet pilot,displayed the flags of China and the United Nations together during the Shenzhou V mission in 2003 and wrote,“To make use of outer space peacefully and for the benefit of all humankind,the Chinese came to outer space.”He was remembered in the history of China as the person who fulfilled the nation’s l,000-year-old dream of“flying to the heavens”.

In the years that followed,I saw Zhai Zhigang floating out of his spacecraft and waving a Chinese flag among the stars;Jing Haipeng entering China’s first space lab;Wang Yaping demonstrating the beauty of physics to 60 million students far outside the Earth’s atmosphere;and Nie Haisheng creating the China’s record for the longest stay in space.

However,few people realize how taikonauts prepare themselves to be qualified.They need to study advanced mathematics,aerodynamics,astronomy,space science and technology,English,environmental science,medicine,psychology and many other theoretical courses,all in one year,a superhuman task equal to shortening a normal college student’s four-year study plan to 12 months.

Apart from theoretical study,taikonauts must undergo a large amount of physical training.In a pressure chamber,they go through a simulated ascent from ground level to an altitude of 5,000 meters in five minutes,with all the dizziness,sickness and even shock.While training for spacewalks in a weightless environment,they wear a suit weighing over 160 kilograms and stay underwater for four hours at a time,losing two kilograms or more in each period.

I have once interviewed Huang Weifen,who is in charge of taikonauts training.''Without exceptional perseverance,they don't make it,'she said.“Our space knows no boundary,and our exploration will never end.”