BEIJING -- The Central Military Commission (CMC) on Friday held a ceremony to honor the military unit of astronauts.

An order signed by President Xi Jinping, also CMC chairman, was read at the ceremony, and a certificate of honor was presented to the unit.

Established in January 1998, the unit has selected 21 astronauts, and was honored as a "heroic unit of astronauts" for completing the country's first manned space mission in 2003.

Five more manned space missions have been completed since then and great achievements been made in space exploration, including spacewalk, docking and in-orbit stay.

A total of 11 astronauts have been honored as "space flight heroes" and "heroic astronauts" by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the State Council and the CMC.