Love in Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center

Jia Lide (L) and his wife Li Ting visit the launch pad of the Dong Fang Hong I, China's first satellite, at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Jiuquan, northwest China's Gansu Province, June 11, 2012. (Xinhua/Wang Jianmin)

Jia Lide (1st R) and his wife Li Ting (L, front) enjoy family time at their residence near the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Jiuquan, northwest China's Gansu Province, June 12, 2012. (Xinhua/Wang Jianmin)

Jia Lide (R) and his wife Li Ting visit a cemetery of China's space and aeronautics pioneers near the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Jiuquan, northwest China's Gansu Province, June 11, 2012. (Xinhua/Wang Jianmin)

Jia Lide (L) and his wife Li Ting chat with each other near the launch pad of the Shenzhou-9 manned spacecraft, which will go on a space docking mission, at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Jiuquan, northwest China's Gansu Province, June 11, 2012.(Xinhua/Wang Jianmin)

Jia Lide and his family have fun outside their residence near the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Jiuquan, northwest China's Gansu Province, June 12, 2012. (Xinhua/Wang Jianmin)

Jia Lide (R) and his wife Li Ting walk along a railroad at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Jiuquan, northwest China's Gansu Province, June 11, 2012. (Xinhua/Wang Jianmin)

Li Ting keeps track of test results for a rocket malfunction detection system at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Jiuquan, northwest China's Gansu Province, June 11, 2012. (Xinhua/Wang Jianmin)

Jia Lide, who is 31, started to work at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in autumn 2008, after receiving his doctorate in mechanic engineering at National University of Defense Technology (NUDT).

He soon got used to the new job because his research projects in the university lab had much to do with China's manned spacecraft program. Jia Lide met his wife Li Ting when they were still postgraduates at NUDT. Li gave up the opportunity to work as a faculty member at NUDT when she graduated in 2009, and joined her husband. The couple seldom have time for their three-year-old daughter, Qiqi, owing to their tight working schedules. However, they are not going to let Qiqi leave the small town where the satellite launch center is located. They believe it is good for Qiqi to grow in a quiet, undisturbed environment. For them, the satellite launch center is more than a workplace. It is a place where they built up their family, as well as a stage where they witnessed the splendor of their carreer.