yang liwei chinese pilot yuhangyuan. born 21 june 1965.
first chinese man in space.
personal: male, married, one son. born in suizhong, liaoning, china. bachelor's pla air force pla air force pla air force
astronaut career
astronaut group:. active number of flights: 1.00. total time: 0.89 days.
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
