China's First Astronaut CAVES Training Concludes in Mountainous Area
A team of Chinese astronauts has successfully completed a round of harsh training under a CAVES training program administered in a mountainous area of southwest China's Chongqing Municipality. This is the country's first such program similar to the Cooperative Adventure for Valuing and Exercising human behavior and performance Skills (CAVES) training organized by the European Space Agency (ESA).
During the month-long training program organized by the China Astronaut Research and Training Center (CARTC), the team of 28 astronauts were divided into four groups, each taking turns to continuously stay in a cave with an average temperature of eight degree Celsius and humidity as high as 99 percent for six days and five nights.
The cave environment shares similarities with extreme space conditions, such as isolation, confinement and high risk. During the training, the astronauts fulfilled predetermined tasks including cave exploration, scientific research, material management and life support.
They overcame challenges, such as navigating extremely narrow passages, climbing and rappelling down cliffs, enduring prolonged exposure to cold and damp conditions, and facing extreme physical endurance tests.
They also overcame numerous psychological hurdles including fear of darkness and sensory deprivation.
"Our cave training program is primarily designed to meet the requirements of our nation's crewed spaceflight development. We utilize the natural cave environment to enhance astronauts' capabilities in handling hazardous situations, team collaboration, scientific literacy and research skills, emergency decision-making, physical endurance, and psychological resilience in extreme conditions," said Wu Bin, an expert in charge of astronaut training with the China Astronaut Research and Training Center.
Over the course of six days and five nights, the astronauts must complete a multi-hour passage exploration mission each day with physical exertion comparable to a high-intensity extravehicular activity.
They would not only employ rope techniques to ascend and descend sheer cliffs and crawl through extremely narrow passages, but also independently carry out scientific tasks such as cave surveying, monitoring environmental parameters, and collecting microbial and sediment samples.
During the training, instructors also unexpectedly introduced emergency scenarios like simulated medical evacuations to comprehensively test the crew's emergency response and collaborative problem-solving capabilities.
"Exploring four side caves, each with distinct topography and terrain, presents unique challenges and difficulties. Cave training hones one's comprehensive qualities and capabilities, particularly teamwork skills. This holds significant implications for our future spaceflight missions, prompting me to contemplate how to effectively lead teams and manage crews aboard the space station," said astronaut Zhu Yangzhu.
Psychological behavioral training is one of the core objectives of the CAVES training program. In an extremely confined and isolated environment, the astronauts may face multiple psychological challenges, including sensory deprivation, uncertainty of risks and social restrictions.
"We conducted continuous psychological observation and assessment of astronauts during the training, providing support through environmental, group-based, and technical methods. Concurrently, we also collected data on psychological state development and changes in the human body under such extreme conditions. The data will provide crucial support for establishing psychological support systems for astronauts undertaking long-duration space station missions and crewed lunar landing missions in the future," said Jiang Yuan, an instructor from the China Astronaut Research and Training Center.
Astronaut Ye Guangfu, who previously received the ESA's CAVES training, served as one of the commanders for the training in Chongqing. In his view, China's own training program demonstrated distinctive characteristics and independent innovation.
"In terms of the training procedure, our support team reduced intervention in the activities of astronauts. This approach allows for greater autonomy in teamwork, thereby further unlocking their potential to accomplish tasks in the cave. Additionally, we incorporated a series of experimental tasks during the mission to deepen our understanding of the mutual influence between the cave environment and human behavior. For support capabilities, we enhanced audio-visual communication methods, significantly improving our external communication support capacity," Ye said.
"We have definitely met the preset objectives. For the astronauts, this training program has first and foremost deepened their understanding of such complex and challenging environments, while also enhancing their capabilities across all aspects to handle such environments and intricate tasks. Additionally, we have carefully grouped astronauts of distinct types, batches, and mission experience levels. This training program has strengthened mutual understanding and integration among them. We've also conducted extensive scientific research focusing on human-environment interactions, primarily through seven projects, yielding a wealth of data and valuable results, which we will analyze in detail in a coming period," said Wang Yanlei, head of the Astronaut Selection and Training Office at the China Astronaut Research and Training Center.
This training program also included two days of jungle training for each session.
"The jungle training program consists of three main components: First, emergency contact: In emergency, the astronauts need to establish communication with the outside world using limited supplies and equipment. Second, sustaining life: In the event that rescue forces may be unable to arrive promptly, the astronauts need to do all they can to utilize acquired knowledge and skills to maintain survival with minimal tools. And third, safely navigating out of the jungle: Under the premise of guaranteeing safety, the astronauts need to go out of the jungle to rendezvous with search and rescue teams," said expert Tian Liping from the China Astronaut Research and Training Center.
The successful completion of the training program marked a significant step forward in advancing China's astronaut training system toward greater comprehensiveness and practical relevance, providing robust support for astronauts undertaking extended space station missions and crewed lunar landing operations.
In recent years, the China Astronaut Research and Training Center has continuously innovated training methods and techniques in response to new mission requirements. It has established an astronaut flight instructor system, integrating practical experience from spaceflight into theoretical instruction and hands-on guidance, thereby driving continuous improvements in training quality and standards.
Duration: 5 minutes
Release Date: Jan. 6, 2026
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