Liu Yang (astronaut)

Liu Yang (born October 6, 1978) is a Chinese pilot and astronaut who served as a crew member on the space mission Shenzhou 9. On 16 June 2012, Liu became the first Chinese woman in space.

Biography
Liu was born in Zhengzhou, Henan in 1978, into a family of Linzhou, Anyang origin. She graduated from People's Liberation Army Air Force Aviation College of Changchun.

Liu joined the People's Liberation Army Air Force in 1997 and qualified as a pilot before becoming the deputy head of a flight unit, holding the PLAAF rank of major. She is a veteran pilot with 1,680 hours of flying experience. After two years of astronaut training, Liu excelled in testing before being selected with another woman, Wang Yaping, as a candidate for the astronaut corps.

Liu was selected for the crew of Shenzhou 9, the first manned mission to the Chinese space station Tiangong 1, along with Jing Haipeng, the first repeat Chinese space traveller, and Liu Wang. Liu became the first female Chinese astronaut to go into space. The mission was launched on 16 June 2012, 49 years to the day after the first female space traveller, cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova was launched. During this manned space mission, Liu performed experiments in space medicine.

Personal life
Liu is a member of the Communist Party of China. She has no siblings and is married with no children. The news agency Xinhua reported a former spaceflight official as claiming that marriage was a requirement for all female Chinese astronauts as "married women would be more physically and psychologically mature." However, this requirement has been officially denied by the director of the China Astronaut Centre, stating that this is a preference but not a strict limitation.

Yang has been described as an eloquent speaker, an avid reader and also a lover of cooking.