Cavalry team given important role in space operation

Being a member of the search team for the Chang'e 5 spacecraft's return filled 21-year-old Kang Hongyu with the type of pride that is undimmed despite freezing weather.

Kang is a member of the militia cavalry team of Siziwang Banner of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, where the capsule landed early on Thursday morning, bringing back soil and rock samples from the moon.

Before the landing, ground support personnel and the recovery team were in place to ensure everything around the site was organized and the transfer of the capsule processed smoothly.

The militia cavalry team was founded in April. Its emergency work is one of its most important missions, and Kang and more than 20 of his teammates were assigned to search for the capsule in the landing site area.

Because the search mission was at night when temperatures were much lower, all team members were asked to be fully prepared.

Before the landing, they had drilled around the landing site for more than 10 days, where the local temperature can easily reach-25 C.

"We felt very proud to participate in this mission－the cold cannot deter us. Our families are also very supportive and feel that our work makes a contribution to the country," said Kang.

For Siziwang Banner, spacecraft reentry capsules are not odd.

It has also welcomed back 11 Shenzhou spacecraft designed for China's manned spaceflight program and 14 astronauts over two decades.

Siziwang Banner is in the center of Inner Mongolia, about 80 kilometers north of Hohhot, the capital of the autonomous region.