Prague, Oct 18 (CTK) – American astronaut of Chinese origin Leroy Chiao, 56, presented his One Orbit book of photographs from his space flights in 1994-2005 in a Czech translation in the seat of the New York University Prague on Tuesday.
The photos were taken at the altitude of 400 kilometres and the speed of eight kilometres per second.
One of the book patrons was Oldrich Pelcak, substitute of the first and only Czechoslovak cosmonaut Vladimir Remek.
The Gallery of Zdenek Sklenar in Prague published Chiao’s book with the consent of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Chinese Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSEO).
Along with Chiao, the texts in the book were written by Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, Chen Shanguang, deputy director of China’s Manned Space Engineering Astronaut System, and Russian cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov.
The book was first presented at the international book fair in Beijing on August 28. Its English and Chinese versions will follow.
During the debate, Chiao dismissed the myth saying the Great Wall of China can be seen from the space. He also admitted that each astronaut experienced fear.
Chiao spent a total of 229 days in the space and almost 37 hours outside the spacecraft on six occasions during extravehicular activities. He lived on board the International Space Station in orbit.
In 15 years, Chiao participated in four space missions, flying aboard the U.S. Columbia, Endeavour and Discovery space shuttles and the Russian Soyuz TMA-5 spacecraft that was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Chiao, who speaks English, Russian and Chinese fluently, visited Prague for the first time in 2009.
