It is a reply to a letter written by Zhai Mingjun, a 16-year-old girl in the class. The two astronauts thank the student for her concerns and wish the class luck in their future studies.
“I’m so happy that the two spacemen replied with a few encouraging words, ”said Zhai. Her letter was one of the 10 winning letters taken into space by Fei and Nie, who have succeeded in traveling space in the Sixth Shenzhou Spaceship. Zhai wrote the letter as if she were a younger sister of the astronauts. “As the single child in my family, I always hoped that I would have an elder brother that I could be proud of, ”Zhai said. “I thought that the astronauts would be lonely during such a long space trip. I hoped they would feel happy and warm when reading my letter. ”Many of Zhai’s classmates also wrote their words of encouragement and admiration to the astronauts. “The letter to the astronauts made us believe that we can also be part of the manned space program, ”said Zhao Dongxu.
All the students have high expectations for China’s future space program. “I heard that Snoopy is the mascot(吉祥物)for US astronauts. I hope I can design a mascot for our heroes, ”said Liu Mengjie, 16. “A physics class taught by astronauts in outer space would be very interesting. I want to be the astronaut who teaches students about zero gravity with my head upside down in the spaceship, ”said Han Yinan.
Many students think that the manned space program is still far away from them. But they feel proud that ordinary students couldparticipatein such a great scientific achievement and hope there will be more possibilities to take part.
