In 1985, when an American scientist went into space, why did he bring a five-star red flag with him?

▲University of California, Los Angeles, the number one public university in the United States

In 1967, Wang Ganjun graduated from University of California, Los Angeles with a bachelor's degree in physics; 1 year later, Wang Ganjun He successfully obtained a master's degree; after that, he continued to study at the school, specializing in solid-state physics, fluid mechanics and acoustics, paying particular attention to the relationship between the three, and successfully obtained a doctorate in physics in 1971.

At that time he was less than 30 years old, very young and promising. Facts have proved that his choice was right. He has found a life path that he is good at and interested in. This is very fortunate.

Since 1972,Wang Ganjun entered the Pasadena Jet Propulsion Laboratory affiliated to NASA as a superphysical researcher and director of the Institute of Gravity-free Research. At that time, no one thought that Wang Ganjun would eventually become the first Chinese in the world to go to space (Wang Ganjun became an American citizen in 1974).

▲Wang Ganjun

2. "The ancestors have accumulated virtues"

To say that Wang Ganjun finally went to space through two key steps, one is that his experimental project was selected. One is that he himself was selected.

Let me talk about the first one. According to his own words, it means "the ancestor has accumulated virtue."

At the time he was doing research projects, many people actually wrote papers, and some people's research results were even more advanced. However, Wang Ganjun is smarter because he found that these people are only doing theoretical research, but do not involve experimental research.

Therefore, Wang Ganjun, who has never liked to go the ordinary way, boldly proposed to NASA, requesting an experiment on the "liquid condition with zero gravity" in space. This is actually his own Invention project.

At that time, he applied for more than 500 experimental projects at the same time. Wang Ganjun didn't have much hope. However, when he had no hope, his experimental project was successfully selected and became one of the 14 approved projects out of more than 500 projects. Therefore, when he was interviewed later, he joked that "the ancestors have accumulated virtue."

▲Wang Ganjun

However, the selection of the experimental project is only the first step. There are still tens of thousands of miles before he himself goes to space. Why do you say that? It turned out that there were two ways to do experiments on the spacecraft : One is to train astronauts as scientists, that is, astronauts will undertake experimental tasks, and the other is to train scientists as astronauts.That is, the scientist will go directly to space and do his own experiments.

The previous common practice is actually the first one, because the risk is smaller and the cost is lower. However, at that time, Wang Ganjun "don't know what the sky is high and the earth is thick", so he wrote to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to apply for an application to go to space to do experiments on his own.

As a scientist, it is not a simple matter to set foot on the sky like a professional astronaut, complete the experiment and return safely. Wang Ganjun needs to meet a lot of conditions.

The first one is physical fitness , such as good eyes and no major physical problems. For this reason, Wang Ganjun underwent a lot of physical examinations, and luckily he passed them smoothly. The second one is psychological quality. is actually relatively "virtual". For example, one of the checks is to put people in a ball and hang them on the ceiling to create a state of special isolation, and then observe whether people will Feeling flustered, or other mood swings. This is mainly to examine a person's personality, such as self-confidence, willpower, and ability to withstand pressure.

What everyone did not expect was that Wang Ganjun passed all physical and psychological tests and was officially identified as one of the scientists participating in the space experiment in 1982. Wang Ganjun is only one step away from making history.

▲Wang Ganjun

3. Going into space with a five-star red flag

After being determined to be able to go to space, Wang Ganjun started a two-year space flight training. In his own words, the past two years are "No day is better."

For example, he would be fixed on a chair and then rotated 360 degrees, and at the same time, it would swing up and down like an elevator.This is a very painful thing, in order to train people's tolerance to vertigo and space shocks. For example, human body centrifuge training, such as training from a height of 40,000 meters to 20,000 meters and so on.

Although the process was painful, fortunately, with his amazing willpower, Wang Ganjun finally passed.

On April 29, 1985, 7 astronauts including Wang Ganjun were taken into outer space by the "Challenger" space shuttle. Wang Ganjun thus became the first Chinese in the world to go to space.

The news came, not only caused a sensation in the American Chinese circle, but also inspired Chinese aerospace science and technology colleagues. Wang Ganjun's every move has attracted much attention.

▲Wang Ganjun (second from left in the back row)

It is reported that before departure, according to regulations, they can bring some personal belongings with them. Wang Ganjun brought a few things at the time. one is a Chinese song tape, the other is One of the famous Chinese teas is China's " 诗经", and the last one is the national flag of the People's Republic of China-the five-star red flag, which is almost all related to China.

He also joked to his companions at the time that he was going to be in space, playing Chinese songs for everyone, and tasting Chinese tea with everyone.

As a descendant of Yan Huang, although he has been out of China for more than 30 years, he still remembers the Chinese land and culture where he was born and raised. Therefore, before launching into the air, he wrote down all the time and orbit of flying across China-entering from Guangxi and exiting from the northeast, which lasted seven minutes.

Wang Ganjun seriously told his colleagues that when flying over China, he had to give him the treadmill, and he would run over the Chinese territory to show that he had "traveled" in the motherland.

"I ran across China in space, from east to west,It took less than ten minutes in total. Later, I often joked that, you see, my light gong is still very good! It took me a few minutes to ‘fly over’ China. Wang Ganjun used this special way to "return" to the motherland.

▲Wang Ganjun

In addition, when Wang Ganjun was experimenting in space, it was not all smooth sailing. He had encountered a big trouble.

At the time when he started his first experiment, he suddenly discovered that a switch in was always turned off automatically, which made him very flustered. Before that, Wang Ganjun had imagined countless possible failures, but never expected it to happen here. Question. It’s like driving out to play. I thought of any accident, but found that the chair broke.

After the equipment malfunctioned, NASA ground control center said to abandon the experiment. However, Wang Ganjun disagrees, which means he has two years. The training was done for nothing, and may go back empty-handed. Of course, the more important thing is that he thinks he is the first Chinese to go to space. Facing Jiangdong elders without words".

Therefore, Wang Ganjun said to the control center very seriously: "If you don't give me a chance to repair the experimental equipment, I will not go back.

At that time, NASA officials heard this and thought he was crazy and doing stupid things, so he immediately called a psychiatrist to talk to him. After the chat, the psychiatrist told the NASA officials that his psychology No problem, I just wanted to experiment.

So NASA compromised and promised to give Wang Ganjun a day to repair the equipment, and give up if the repair fails. Later, Wang Ganjun repaired the equipment smoothly and completed the experiment.

▲Wang Ganjun repaired equipment in space

Afterwards he joked in an interview with reporters,When I said that sentence, I was actually subconscious, and I never thought that I would really do something stupid. Besides, in the spacecraft at that time, the doors were all locked, and you couldn't do stupid things. There was no gravity if you wanted to hang yourself. He was just thinking about completing the experiment and not embarrassing the Chinese.

In the end, with his own efforts, Wang Ganjun proved his strength and inspired the Chinese community in the United States. At the same time, he also demonstrated with his silent actions that the wisdom of the Chinese people can stand the test.

▲Wang Ganjun was interviewed

4. Returning to the homeland

In July 1985, Wang Ganjun came to China for a two-week official visit at the invitation of the national space department. Her wife and children came back with him.

On July 9, Wang Ganjun was invited to Zhongnanhai Ziguang Pavilion to communicate with the then Prime Minister Zhao Ziyang. On the spot, he gave the five-star red flag that he took into space and circled the earth for 110 weeks and presented it to Premier Zhao Ziyang, and said to Premier Zhao Ziyang in Mandarin with a little Shanghai accent, he participated in this space flight , I wanted to take a meaningful thing with me to heaven, so I brought a national flag of the People’s Republic of China.

Premier Zhao Ziyang replied: "You are the first of the descendants of Yan and Huang to enter space. This is not only your pride, but also the pride of the Chinese nation." Later, this special five-star red flag was taken Collected into the National Museum of China.

▲Wang Ganjun: The first Chinese to fly

After the visit to Beijing, the family of three went to Suzhou again to sweep the tomb of their grandmother; they also visited many places of interest in Shanghai, Xi'an, Guilin, Hangzhou, etc. Monuments.The great rivers and mountains of his homeland made him linger, seeming to bring back childhood memories.

He told reporters that I have left mainland China for more than 30 years, and it is a great honor to have the opportunity to come back this time. As a Chinese-American scientist, he has never forgotten that he is a descendant of Yan Huang. encountered a failure in the space experiment at the time, and when it was fighting with NASA officials on grounds, it also wanted to fight for the Chinese.

Overseas, whether he is Chinese or not, he represents the sons and daughters of China and the descendants of Yan and Huang. Wang Ganjun has never forgotten this.

▲Wang Ganjun was interviewed in his later years

On March 31, 2012, Peking University Centenary Lecture Hall held the award ceremony of "The World is Beautiful because of You-The Chinese Influencing the World". Wang Ganjun won the 2011 "Lifetime Achievement Award for Influencing Chinese in the World" . Prior to him, the winners of this award were: Yang Zhenning (2006), Yuan Longping (2007), Jin Yong (2008) and (2010).

Wang Ganjun was already 72 years old. When facing a reporter interview, when the reporter asked him if he could give some advice to the current Chinese youth, Wang Ganjun thought about it, and then said that people should do what they like. Only by doing what they like, life will be very good. It's better, I won't be depressed. He also gave his own example very humorously,

"For example, like me, I often can't sleep at night. What is the reason? Because I am excited about the experiment to be done the next day, I can't wait for the morning to dawn.Hurry up to the lab to see those things, so I have had a very lucky life in my life. Advise young children to do what you like to do. If you do what others tell you to do, you live your life for others; what a pity, because you only have this life, so why don't you live it for yourself? ”