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Yang Liwei

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Yang Liwei Credit: www.spacefacts.de

Status: Inactive; Active 1998-2006. Born: 1965-06-21. Spaceflights: 1 . Total time in space: 0.89 days. Birth Place: Suizhong, Liaoning.

Yang Liwei was China's first citizen in space. His launch into orbit aboard Shenzhou-5 on 15 October 2003 marked the entry of China into an elite group, consisting only of Russia and the United States, who had the capability to launch human beings off the planet. Yang's name therefore was placed in history next to those of Yuri Gagarin and Alan Shepard.

Yang was born in June 1965 in Suizhong County of northeast China's Liaoning Province. Friends in his hometown recalled that Yang had dreamed of flying when still a child. He joined the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) in September 1983 and entered the No. 8 Aviation College of the PLA Air Force. Yang graduated in 1987 with the equivalent of a bachelor's degree. He became a fighter pilot, accumulating 1,350 flight-hours by the time of his first spaceflight in 2003.

In January 1998, Yang was selected as a member of the group of Chinese astronauts set to train to fly the Project 921 (later Shenzhou) spacecraft. He was one of 14 chosen from among 1,500 pilot candidates. The team underwent five years of rigid physical, psychological and technical training at the Astronaut Training Base in Beijing. The astronauts received lessons in aviation dynamics, air dynamics, geophysics, meteorology, astronomy, space navigation, and the design principles and structure of rockets and spacecraft. They also received systematic training in space flight simulators.

Yang noted the study was much more difficult than that in college. The astronauts also had to learn survival skills under extreme conditions in case their capsule landed anywhere on the earth, on land or sea.

On September 20, 2003 the 14 astronauts started exercising in the real Shenzhou-5 spacecraft at the Jiuquan Launch Centre. Yang was finally selected in October as one of three finalists to be the country's first astronaut.

Yang, 168 cm tall and weighing 65 kg, was a lieutenant colonel at the time of his first spaceflight. He had an eight-year-old son. His wife, Zhang Yumei, also served in China's space program.

Yang was first identified as an astronaut in the May 2003 issue of Fliegerrevue. His was one of 12 new names listed as those of Chinese astronauts in training. The day before the scheduled launch of Shenzhou-5, China's first manned flight, he was named in the Hong Kong press as the prime crew member for the flight.

Although the first Chinese citizen launched aboard a Chinese spacecraft, Yang was preceded into space by the following astronauts either born in China or with Chinese heritage:

• William Anders (one flight, 6.13 days total time: Apollo 8), born in Hong Kong on 17 October 1933. Certainly the first person born in China to have orbited the moon!
• Shannon Lucid, (five flights, total time 223.12 days, STS-51-G, STS-34, STS-43, STS-58, STS-79), born in Shanghai on 14 January 1943.
• Taylor Gun-Jin Wang (one flight, total time 7.01 days: STS-51-B), born in Shanghai on June 16, 1940, an American citizen since 1975.
• Franklin Chang-Diaz (six flights, total time 52.91 days: STS-61-C, STS-34, STS-46, STS-60, STS-75, STS-91) born in Costa Rica, with some Chinese ancestors but considers himself a Hispanic-American.
• Edward Tsang Lu (two flights, total time 21.02 days: STS-84, STS-106), born in in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1963.

• Birth of Yang Liwei - . Nation: China. Related Persons: Yang Liwei.

  Chinese pilot taikonaut 1998-2006. First Chinese man in space. Retired thereafter, becoming Vice-Director of the China Astronaut Research and Training Center; by 2010 was Deputy Director of the Project 921 Office. 1 spaceflight, 21.4 hours in space. Flew to orbit on Shenzhou 5 (2003).

• China Astronaut Training Group 1 selected. - . Nation: China. Related Persons: Chen Quan, Deng Qingming, Fei Junlong, Jing Haipeng, Liu Buoming, Liu Wang, Nie Haisheng, Pan Zhanchun, Yang Liwei, Zhai Zhigang, Zhang Xiaoguang, Zhao Chuandong.

  Selection of astronauts to fly the Project 921 / Shenzhou manned spacecraft began at the end of 1995. Only PLAAF pilots were considered. Review of service records identified 1504 candidates, further reduced to 886 after stricter screening. In the summer of 1996, 60 candidates passed initial testing at their home bases and were sent to Beijing for final tests and interviews. By April 1997 the candidate list had been pared down to 20, and the final 12 were selected at the end of 1997. The group was officially established in January 1998. In March, 1998, the two Chinese astronauts trained in Russia in 1996, who were also the trainers of this first group of 12 cosmonauts, joined the group officially as candidates for future spaceflights, bringing the total to 14.

• Shenzhou 5 - . Crew: Yang Liwei. Backup Crew: Zhai Zhigang. Support Crew: Nie Haisheng. Mass: 7,840 kg (17,280 lb). Nation: China. Agency: PLAAF. Manufacturer: CALT. Class: Manned. Type: Manned spacecraft. Flight: Shenzhou 5. Spacecraft: Shenzhou. Duration: 0.89 days. Decay Date: 2003-10-16 . USAF Sat Cat: 28043 . COSPAR: 2003-045A. Apogee: 336 km (208 mi). Perigee: 332 km (206 mi). Inclination: 42.42 deg. Period: 91.20 min.

  China's first manned spaceflight began with the lift-off of the CZ-2F booster into the clear blue morning sky. All went according to plan and China's first man in space, Yang Liwei, entered an initial 200 km x 343 km orbit ten minutes after launch. The naval vessels standing buy for rescue in the Sea of Japan were called back to port.

  The highly conservative mission plan was for Yang to remain in the Shenzhou re-entry capsule for the entire 21-hour mission, and not to enter the orbital module. He had two rest periods of three hours each, and was scheduled to eat once or twice meals of what was said to be a superior form of Chinese space food. Frequent communications sessions, including colour television links to the spacecraft, were made possible by China's four tracking ships deployed in the oceans of the world.

  As the spacecraft was in its 21st orbit, the orbital module separated. It would stay in the 343 km orbit for a planned six-month military imaging reconnaissance mission. Retrofire was commanded via a tracking ship in the Atlantic off the coast of Africa. Shenzhou-5 landed only 4.8 km from the aim-point in Inner Mongolia with the parachute being sighted by the ground recovery forces prior to landing. Yang landed after 21 hours 23 minutes aloft.