Liu Yang (taikonaut) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Liu Yang
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Liu in 2013
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| Born | 6 October 1978 Zhengzhou, Henan, China
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| Status | Active |
| Space career | |
| PLAAC Taikonaut | |
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Previous occupation
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Military transport pilot, PLAAF |
| Rank | Senior Colonel, PLASSF |
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Time in space
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195 days, 0 hours and 50 minutes |
| Selection | Chinese Group 2 |
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Total EVAs
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1 |
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Total EVA time
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6 hours, 7 minutes |
| Missions | Shenzhou 9, Shenzhou 14 |
| Liu Yang | |||||||||
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| Liu Yang | |||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 劉洋 | ||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 刘洋 | ||||||||
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Liu Yang (Chinese: 刘洋; pinyin: Liú Yáng; born 6 October 1978) is a Chinese military transport pilot and taikonaut 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 province in 1978, into a worker's family of Linzhou, Anyang origin. Her father Liu Shilin (Chinese: 刘士林) was an assistant engineer in the technical department of Zhengzhou First Food Machinery Factory, and her mother Niu Xiyun (Chinese: 牛喜云) was a worker in Zhengzhou Light Automobile Manufacturing Factory. She is the only child in the family. She graduated from PLA Air Force Aviation University in Changchun.
Liu joined the PLA 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 crewed 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 June 16, 2012, 49 years to the day after the first female space traveller, cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova was launched. During this crewed space mission, Liu performed experiments in space medicine.
On June 5, 2022, Liu launched aboard Shenzhou 14 to the Tiangong space station for a mission and stay to last about 6 months. She carried out her first spacewalk on 1 September 2022, becoming the second Chinese woman to conduct one.
Personal life
Liu is a member of the Chinese Communist Party. She is married and has no siblings. In February 2015, it was confirmed that she had given birth, but no further information was given about her child. The news agency Xinhua reported a former spaceflight official as claiming that marriage was a requirement for all female Chinese astronauts due to concerns that spaceflight could potentially harm women's fertility and also "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. Liu is married to Zhang Hua (Chinese: 张华), they have a son and a daughter.
Liu has been described as an eloquent speaker, an avid reader and also a lover of cooking.
See also
In Spanish: Liu Yang para niños
