According to the news of the China Manned Space Engineering Office on October 1, 2020, the selection of the third batch of reserve astronauts for China's manned space project ended a few days ago, and a total of 18 reserve astronauts (including 1 woman) were finally selected, including 7 space pilots, 7 space flight engineers and 4 payload experts, who will become new members of China's astronaut team.

According to reports, in order to meet the needs of China's space station engineering tasks, the third batch of reserve astronauts has added two categories of space flight engineers and payload experts on the basis of space pilots. Among them, space pilots and space flight engineers are mainly responsible for directly controlling and managing spacecraft, as well as carrying out related technical tests. Payload specialists are mainly responsible for the on-orbit operation of payloads for space science experiments.