Chen Zhongrui was born in October 1984 in Hua County, Henan Province, China. He studied at the PLA Air Force Changchun Flight Academy and became a fighter pilot and instructor in the People’s Liberation Army. In September 2020, he was selected as one of China’s third batch of astronaut candidates under the Shenzhou program and later became deputy commander of the PLA Astronaut Corps. On April 24, 2025, Chen launched aboard Shenzhou 20 to the Tiangong space station, where he performed two spacewalks totaling around 13 hours to install debris protection devices and carry out maintenance tasks.