Liu Yang is China’s first female astronaut.
The Chinese space program has grown by leaps and bounds since the Chinese government decided that going to space needs to be a thing they do. Their first man went into space in 2003; in 2008, they had their first space walk. In November 2011, the Chinese space program had their first successful docking when the Shenzhou 8 linked up with the space platform Tiangong 1 via remote control, twice. Now, China wants to put some astronauts on board the Tiangong to test the effects of weightlessness on the human body and in that spirit, the Chinese have picked their first female astronaut. Liu Yang will be the first Chinese woman to go into space. She is 34 years old, married with one child, and is a pilot on the People’s Liberation Army
“Arranging for women astronauts to fly is not only a must for the development of human spaceflight, but also the expectation of the public. This is a landmark event, ” said space program spokeswoman Wu Ping of the flight, in which Ms. Liu will join veteran astronaut and mission commander Jing Hai and newcomer Liu Wang. “You could say this mission is a combination of the old and the new and coordination between the male and female.”
The flight is scheduled to take place on Saturday. The Shenzhou 9 rocket will launch from China’s Jiugquan Satellite Launch Center in Northern China, near the Gobi desert. The mission will last 10 days, and then the Chinese astronauts will return to earth by making a parachute landing into the grassy plains of Western China. China is the third member of the manned space flight club after the United States and Russia/The USSR.
Image: The Jakarta Post
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