BEIJING – China sent its first woman into space when an ace airforce pilot joins a three-member team of astronauts on the Shenzhou-9 spacecraft which blasted off this week to attempt communist giant’s first manned docking.
“When I was a pilot, I flew in the sky. Now I am an astronaut, I will fly in the space. That will be a higher and farther flight,” Liu Yang who addressed a nationally televised press conference said summing up her feelings after being chosen for tomorrow’s flight in a stiff competition.
“Aside from fulfilling the tasks, I want to experience the fantastic environment in space and appreciate the beautiful Earth and our homeland from the space,” she said.
She along with her two male crew members Jing Haipeng and Liu Wang addressed the media before getting ready to join the count down to blast off tomorrow evening from a launch site in the Gobi desert.
The three astronauts, who are all members of the ruling Communist Party of China, will board the Shenzhou-9 spacecraft tomorrow at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northwestern China to fulfill the country’s first manned space docking mission in a key step towards becoming only the third nation after US and Russia to set up a permanent base in orbit.
All three crew members are former pilots of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
Liu’s mission will make China the third country after Russia and the US to send a woman into space. When successful, this will be China’s fourth manned space launch.
Liu and her two male colleagues will dock with with Tiangong-1 module currently orbiting earth.
