Beijing Aerospace Control Center helps China's space initiatives

A team of young scientific and technological professionals at the Beijing Aerospace Flight Control Center have played a crucial role in supporting China's major space initiatives, such as the Tiangong Space Station, the Chang'e lunar probes and the Tianwen Mars exploration missions. They are also determined and inspired by the objectives of constantly boosting China's capabilities of conducting space activities and expanding the boundaries, said J.Yu Tianyi, a deputy director of the scientific research planning office of the Beijing Aerospace Flight Control Center. Yu was the 'driver' for the Yutu-2 rocket, and he managed to guide the rover onto the surface of the far side of the moon, leading the team to improve the rover's remote operation, extending the rover's service life and making it constantly renew the world record for the longest survival time on the moon. The rover has collected more than 940 gigabytes of data from the Earth, which was the most difficult moment in his career, he said. The team has worked in solidarity, achieving multiple international firsts, including the world's first Lunar Lagrangian L2 point relay and detection, and a Mars mission that involved orbiting, landing and roving. The space missions have filled in more than 50 blank spaces of space technology for China and the world, as well as shown the hard-working spirit of Chinese youth during the space missions.

It is difficult to choose the most difficult moment, as the team thought it was on thin ice during each orbital launch and each return of a manned spacecraft. On October 18, 2016, the aircraft control center was operating missions for the Shenzhou-11 manned spaceflight mission to the Tiangong-2 space lab. The SpaceX's computer detected a red alert for a possible collision with debris in space as the manned spacecraft was entering orbit and less than 24 hours before its rendezvous and docking with the Tiangong-2. After analysis by the expert panel, they decided to jump start the remote guidance control process ahead of the original schedule. The Shenzhou-11 spacecraft managed to adjust its orbit in just a few minutes. Chang'e-7 is scheduled to perform a precise landing on the moon's polar regions and complete research and development for Chang'e-8 key technology. Asteroid probes will also be launched to sample near-earth asteroids and to probe main-belt comets and complete key technological research on Mars. Exploration of the Jupiter system and boundary exploration of the solar system are among the things to do for China's space industry in the next five years, said Guao Yuhui, a senior engineer at the Beijing Aerospace Control Center. With the rapid growth of China's aerospace industry, Gao has been able to introduce AI-powered planning technology to effectively solve the challenging obstacles faced by flight control tasks and flight control planning in intricate lunar environments. The team will also strive to make breakthroughs in the fields of intelligent planning and system engineering, he said.