Chinese woman in space

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This article or section contains information about scheduled or expected future events. It may contain information of a tentative nature and the content may change dramatically as the event approaches and more information becomes available.

The first Chinese woman in space will be launched no later than 2010. Following the successful manned flight of Shenzhou 5 in October 2003, China announced plans to send a woman into space.

On July 26, 2005 Hu Shixiang, deputy chief commander of manned space program of China told the China Daily that women astronauts would work as flight commanders or on-board engineers. In 2006 the first group of four will be selected from a pool including professional pilots, scientists and doctors.

On July 28 an officer in People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) said 35 women pilots will be selected for astronaut training. They will be chosen from 200,000 high school graduates and are aged between 17 and 20. Their training will take four years at the Aviation University of Chinese People's Liberation Army Air Force.

Gu Xiulian, president of the All-China Women's Federation (ACWF), told a gathering that she put forward the proposal that women should also be trained for space missions after China's maiden manned space trip, it has been accepted by the central authorities, Beijing Youth Daily reported in March 2004.

Whilst China has not given firm indications of when they will send a woman into space, Western observers believe the Shenzhou 10 mission, due to be launched in 2010 is likely.

In September 2004, Chinese space watchers identified a female astronaut candidate as experienced PLAAF Flight Instructor, Major Guo Liman, aged 32, who may be favourite to make the first flight.

[edit] References

• "Chinese women astronauts set to fly by 2010", Xinhua News Agency, 2005-07-26.
• "China starts training its first group of women astronauts", People's Daily, July 28, 2005.