As China's space program grows, the country is attracting many aerospace engineering students from Belt & Road nations. CGTN's Liu Yang met one from Brazil pursuing a master's degree in the Chinese city of Xi'an.

At this Satellite Ground Station in Northwestern Polytechnical University, or NPU, Felipe Coelho is busy explaining why the ground stations are referred to as the brains of the satellite network.

In 2017, when he interned for a CubeSat project in Germany, Coelho met his current adviser, Huang He. It was through this relationship that he learned about NPU and how it could help him pursue his dreams in aerospace engineering.

FELIPE COELHO STUDENT, SCHOOL OF ASTRONAUTICS NORTHWESTERN POLYTECHNICAL UNIVERSITY "Who never dreamed of being an astronaut, so when I was a child, I have always thought that it is very exciting to be an astronaut, especially inspired by NASA, sci-fi movies."

Last year, wanting to maximise his exposure to industry research, Coelho left his home in Brazil for a master program in aerospace engineering at NPU with a full scholarship.

He says he was enticed by the fast development of China's space technology and its many joint international research opportunities such as "Solar Sail".

FELIPE COELHO STUDENT, SCHOOL OF ASTRONAUTICS NORTHWESTERN POLYTECHNICAL UNIVERSITY "Since the beginning, I wanted to move forward into something that I wanted to accomplish at the beginning."

Solar Sail was a joint program between NPU and the Technical University of Munich. The two institutions came together to send a space craft into deep space towards Mars.

HUANG HE PROFESSOR OF ASTRONAUTICS NORTHWESTERN POLYTECHNICAL UNIVERSITY "We have been actively co-operating and helping countries participating in the Belt and Road in research. At present, we want to work together with the technical university of Munich in Germany to jointly develop a satellite. We hope that, in the future, this satellite will be assembled in orbit and released by astronauts in orbit. Their school also provided funding to support students studying at NPU."

In 2017, NPU and the Chinese Society of Astronautics initiated The Belt and Road Aerospace Innovation Alliance. Its focus is to promote cooperation among alliance members in talent cultivation, scientific research, technology development and applications. The alliance has 51 members from 14 countries including China, Pakistan, Egypt, Russia, the UK and the US.

ZHANG WEIHONG VICE PRESIDENT NORTHWESTERN POLYTECHNICAL UNIVERSITY "Throughout the years, we have also got to know more partners, like the Ukraine National University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, who are very well known in the world of aerospace. We have established a close research alliance. We also carried out a winter camp in Cairo, Egypt, which was highly valued by the Egyptian Military Academy."

The Alliance has hosted a number of events, such as a "Young Scholars Workshop" and "The 9th APSCO International Symposium". Coelho says he's full of pride every time he sees the satellite he worked on launched into space, it means he's one step closer to realizing his dream. Liu Yang, CGTN, Shaanxi Province.