The romance of the ancient Chinese has once again been realized by China's space program!

Yesterday, the romantic Chinese once again sent a "space gift package" to the space station!

According to the China Manned Space Engineering Office, the Tianzhou-5 cargo spacecraft successfully completed its status setting after entering orbit. At 12:10 Beijing time on November 12, it adopted an autonomous rapid rendezvous and docking mode and successfully docked at the rear port of the Tianhe core module of the space station. This is the first time that Chinese astronauts have welcomed a cargo spacecraft at the space station.

The name Tianzhou, like Mengtian and Wentian, contains the romantic genes of the Chinese people since ancient times.

In April 2011, the name collection activity for China's cargo spacecraft was officially launched. At that time, the organizing committee received a total of 9,640 nominations, including Tiansuo, Kunpeng, Tianzhou, Shenlong, Longzhou, etc. In October 2013, the organizing committee announced the name of this cargo spacecraft to the public: Tianzhou, which means the ship of the Milky Way that travels between heaven and earth.

As early as the pre-Qin period, the ancients compared the starry sky to the Milky Way. The vast and ethereal Milky Way is out of reach, and the folk legend of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl is also the most direct portrayal of the Milky Way being unreachable.

However, wherever there is a river, there is a boat. "The benefit of boats is to help those who are blocked and to benefit the world by going far away." Boats can connect two places and cross rivers that are impassable. In ancient times, people knew its important role. Whenever the vast and misty Milky Way first appeared at night, the ancients often imagined whether they could just take a small boat and drift to the distant sea, and between the sea and the sky, they could sail into the Milky Way and reach the heaven.

There is an article called "August Raft" in the Jin Dynasty's collection of strange stories "Bowuzhi", which recorded such a story: Legend has it that the Milky Way and the sea are connected. A man living by the sea wanted to take a "raft" to the sky. He took enough dry food and water and floated on the sea. After many days, he saw a city with magnificent buildings. Looking into the palace, there was a beautiful girl weaving, and a man leading a cow to the water to drink water.

The story of this Shu man sailing a small boat to meet the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl satisfies all people's imaginations of "flying"!

In the Sui Dynasty, Emperor Yang Guang also had the idea of ​​sailing under the sea of ​​stars. In his poem "Spring River Moon Night", he wrote:

The evening river is still and calm, and the spring flowers are in full bloom.

The flowing waves take the moon away, and the tides bring the stars.

The night dew carries the scent of flowers, and the spring pond is filled with the moonlight.

I met a prostitute by the Han River, and met two concubines by the Xiang River.

In his poem "Gu Su Fan Yue" (Floating on the Moon over Suzhou) in the Song Dynasty, Wang Ruan also expressed his wish to ride a small boat straight up to the Milky Way.

Who will sail with me on the raft to the home of Altair and Vega tonight?

But I felt that my body was covered with heavenly dew, without a single speck of worldly dust.

In the Yuan Dynasty, Tang Wenru's "On Qingcao Lake in Longyang County" described the "Sky Boat" more romantically: "After getting drunk, I didn't know that the sky was in the water, and the whole boat was filled with clear dreams that pressed down the Milky Way." This poet moved the Milky Way to the ground. What a bold imagination!

Today, relying on the development of my country's aerospace technology, this boldness and romance has finally become a reality. Tianzhou once again set sail with the Chinese people's thousand-year romance and dream, flying in the stars, delivering precious work and living supplies to the astronauts, and meeting them in the "Heavenly Palace".

Except for Figure 1, all are drawn by AI

Compiled by: Cai Lin, Jiao Ziyuan

Comprehensive: Guangming Daily, People's Daily, CCTV News, Our Space

END

Editor: Muzi