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Home Space Space flight

China chooses first female astronaut

Mihai Andrei by Mihai Andrei
June 15, 2012
in Space flight
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I recently told you a few days ago China was planning its first ever space docking, and one of the astronauts will definitely be a woman – first they nailed it down to two, but now, Chinese officials have made their decision: Liu Yang will be their first female astronaut ever!

Liu Yang - the first Chinese female astronaut ever!

Liu will be one of three astronauts aboard the Shenzhou-9 spacecraft when it blasts off tomorrow ahead of the country’s first manned orbital docking with the Tiangong-1 – the “heavenly palace”. Tomorrow’s launch puts China even closer to their goal of maintaining a permanent manned space station and putting a person on the moon by 2020.

“I am grateful to the motherland and the people,” Liu told a media briefing today, according to Xinhua. “I feel honored to fly into space on behalf of hundreds of millions of female Chinese citizens.”

In China, Liu Yang is a hero pilot, the newspapers reporting how she “successfully dealt with a mid-air emergency” after her plane hit 18 pigeons, splattering the windshield with blood and filling the cockpit with a “burning smell.”

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In China, people able of dealing with emergencies are almost always chosen for important missions. Xinhua reported that Liu has 1,680 hours of flying time and is the deputy head of a flight unit of the PLA’s Air Force. She was recruited to be a potential astronaut in 2010.

Tags: china space programfirst chinese female astronautliu yangspace docking
Mihai Andrei

Mihai Andrei

Andrei's background is in geophysics, and he's been fascinated by it ever since he was a child. Feeling that there is a gap between scientists and the general audience, he started ZME Science -- and the results are what you see today.

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