Feature: Wives of Chinese astronauts expect reunion in pride, anxiety

Source: Xinhua | 09-28-2008 16:40

BEIJING, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Zhang Shujing couldn't wait to welcome her husband back -- from somewhere 343 km above the earth.

The video grab taken at the Beijing Space Command and  Control Center on Sept. 27, 2008 shows Chinese taikonaut  Zhai Zhigang waving while walking out of the orbit module  of the Shenzhou-7 spacecraft.(Xinhua/Chen Jianli)

"I have prepared a lot of flowers -- lilies and a rose. The rose represents my heart," said Zhang, the wife of Chinese astronaut Zhai Zhigang, who accomplished the nation's first space walk with his two colleagues onboard the Shenzhou-7 spacecraft on Saturday afternoon.

Dressed in red, the color of luck in Chinese tradition, Zhang and the wives of the other two taikonauts watched the live telecast of the space walk and talked with the spacemen from the Beijing ground control center on Saturday night.

In the conversation, Zhang asked her husband how he ate, slept and whether he had dreamed of her. "He said sorry that he had not," said Zhang. "But I know I was in his heart."

She exulted in the feat performed by Zhai. "He is brilliant! I'm so lucky to get myself such a husband and I'm very proud," she told Xinhua. "I wish I could fly with him if I had a chance."

Zhang Yao, the wife of Liu Boming, thought Liu's performance was "perfect". "I 've been watching TV all the night in the past few days. Sometimes I fell asleep, then awoke and continued."