Tong Hongbo, male, Han nationality, born in October 1975, is a first-class astronaut of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Astronaut Brigade and an astronaut of Shenzhou XII and XVII.

His place of origin is Xiangtan, Hunan Province, and he is a member of the C*** Party with a master's degree. He enlisted in the army in September 1995 and in April 1997 he joined the C*** Party. During his military career, he served as a brigade commander of a regiment in a division of the Air Force Aviation Corps, accumulating 1,159 hours of safe flights and was named a first-class pilot.In May 2010, Tang Hongbo was selected as one of China's second batch of astronauts and began his career as an astronaut.In May 2016, he was selected as a backup astronaut for the Shenzhou XI mission.

In December 2019, he was selected for the crew of the Shenzhou XII mission. And in June 2021, he carried out the manned Shenzhou XII mission. His outstanding performance and professional ability made him a member of China's space industry.In October 2023, Tang Hongbo was selected to be part of the crew of Shenzhou XVII astronauts and served as the commander.

Shenzhou 12 Mission:

The main purpose of the mission is to validate key technologies for the construction and operation of the space station, including long-term astronaut stay, regeneration and health protection, space material supply, out-of-vehicle activities, extravehicular operations, and on-orbit maintenance. In addition, the mission will also test for the first time the astronaut search and rescue capability of the Dongfeng landing site.

According to the plan, the Shenzhou 12 spacecraft adopts an autonomous fast rendezvous and docking mode, docking with the forward port of the Sky and Core Module to form a combined body. Astronauts will be stationed in the core module to work and live according to the synchronized work and rest system of heaven and earth. It is expected that after a stay of about three months, the astronauts will return to the Dongfeng landing site aboard the spacecraft's return capsule.

The mission will also carry out multi-disciplinary space applications and experiments, comprehensively assess the function and performance of each system in carrying out the space station's mission, and further evaluate the compatibility and coordination of each system, so as to accumulate experience for the subsequent missions.