Crew of China's Shenzhou IX space mission

JIUQUAN - Liu Yang, a 33-year-old former pilot, has been selected as China's first female astronaut, taking her place as one of three members of China's Shenzhou IX spacecraft crew.

As the long-awaited threesome was unveiled on Friday, it was revealed that the crew also includes Jing Haipeng, who will become China's first astronaut to travel twice into space, when Shenzhou IX is scheduled to take off at 6:37 pm Saturday.

All three crew members are former pilots of the People's Liberation Army (PLA). They are all members of the Communist Party of China.

This undated photo shows Liu Yang, 33, one of the three taikonauts who will be carried by the Shenzhou IX spaceship for China's first manned space docking mission with the orbiting Tiangong-1 space lab module. Liu was selected as a taikonaut in 2010. [Photo/Xinhua]

Enlisted in the army in 1997, Liu was a veteran pilot with 1,680 hours of flying experience and the deputy head of a flight unit of the PLA's Air Force before being recruited into China's second batch of prospective astronauts in May 2010. She is now an air force major.

After two years of training that has shored up her astronautic skills and adaptability to the space environment, Liu excelled in testing and was selected in March this year as a candidate to crew the Shenzhou IX.

This undated photo shows Jing Haipeng, 46, one of the three taikonauts who will be carried by the Shenzhou IX spaceship for China's first manned space docking mission with the orbiting Tiangong-1 space lab module. Jing was among the six trainees for the Shenzhou VI mission in 2005, and also one of the three taikonauts who were carried by the Shenzhou VII spaceship for China's third manned space mission in 2008. [Photo/Xinhua]

Jing, 46, was one of the three crew members who achieved success in 2009 aboard Shenzhou VII, China's third manned space mission and one which featured the country's first ever space walk.

Now a senior colonel, Jing joined the PLA in 1985 and has clocked 1,200 hours of safe flight time. He was selected to be one of the first group of Chinese astronauts in January 1998, and was among six astronauts trained in 2005 for the Shenzhou VI mission.

The third astronaut, 43-year-old Liu Wang, joined the army in 1988 and is now a senior colonel. Having flown safely for 1,000 hours, the former pilot was selected to be trained as an astronaut in January 1998.

All three were chosen as candidates for the Shenzhou IX flight in March 2012.

 

This undated photo shows Liu Wang, 43, one of the three taikonauts who will be carried by the Shenzhou IX spaceship for China's first manned space docking mission with the orbiting Tiangong-1 space lab module. Liu became one of the country's first batch of astronauts in 1998. [Photo/Xinhua]