Tiangong's heavenly lectures to spark passion for space in young

Crew members of China's Shenzhou XIII mission will soon give a lecture from the Tiangong space station to students around the world, according to the China Manned Space Agency.

The agency said in a statement on Thursday that the lecture will take place in the coming days and will be broadcast live to audiences around the globe. It will mark the launch of the Heavenly Palace Classes, an extraterrestrial lecture series designed to popularize space science.

Heavenly Palace is the English translation of Tiangong, the most sophisticated achievement in China's manned space program, which will become a massive space station 400 kilometers above Earth.

Heavenly Palace Classes will be based on China's manned spaceflights and will be presented by Chinese astronauts. Featuring interactive teaching, they will mainly be targeted at youngsters.

The statement did not mention which crew member — Major General Zhai Zhigang, Senior Colonel Wang Yaping or Senior Colonel Ye Guangfu — will be host, but Lin Xiqiang, the agency's deputy director, did tell a news conference in mid-October right before the launch of Shenzhou XIII that "Teacher Wang would soon bring her second space lecture to you".

In June 2013, Wang took part in the Shenzhou X mission, which lasted nearly 15 days. During the mission, she delivered the country's first space-based lecture to 60 million Chinese students from inside an experimental space station module.

According to the agency, as a national space-based laboratory, Tiangong is also tasked with promoting and propagating knowledge of science and technology. The orbiting outpost has abundant educational resources and boasts unique advantages when it comes to encouraging the public, especially the young, to get involved in science and space exploration.

Members of the public are welcome to submit their questions, suggestions as well as content they wish to share through the lectures, the agency said, noting they can get in contact via the agency's media partners or through its website.

The Shenzhou XIII mission launched on Oct 16 on a Long March 2F carrier rocket that blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China's Gobi Desert, with the crew entering Tiangong later that day. The trio are scheduled to spend six months working in the station, making it China's longest manned space mission.