15 June 2012 10:25 BJT | Sina News
A video showing the female astronaut Liu Yang in high school class was released recently. In the video,
Liu Yang, as a high school student,is demonstrating in English in front of her classmates.
<iframe width="480" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/vIt3UiT5zFQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Major Liu, 34, was named a hero in 2003 for calmly landing a jet after its right engine was crippled by a bird strike.
On Saturday, she is expected to be named as one of the three-man crew of the Shenzhou 9 mission, China's first
manned space flight since 2008.
The 13-day mission will see the astronauts dock with the Tiangong-1, a space laboratory module that was launched
last September and is now orbiting Earth.
The team will test whether the module is functional, and whether it can efficiently recycle its oxygen and water.
On board, Major Liu will have her own private bedroom, according to the Chinese state media, and will be allowed an
extra ration of water for cleaning.
Born in the central Chinese city of Zhengzhou, her school friends told the China Daily newspaper she was a good
student and a keen volleyball player. After leaving high school she enrolled in a military aviation school in Changchun
and then became first a cargo and then a fighter pilot.
If the launch goes ahead as scheduled, it will be 49 years since the first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova, a
Russian described by the New York Times at the time as a "heavy-set parachutist" made her historic flight. Women
from eight different countries have become astronauts.
A video showing the female astronaut Liu Yang in high school class was released recently. In the video,
Liu Yang, as a high school student,is demonstrating in English in front of her classmates.
<iframe width="480" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/vIt3UiT5zFQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Major Liu, 34, was named a hero in 2003 for calmly landing a jet after its right engine was crippled by a bird strike.
On Saturday, she is expected to be named as one of the three-man crew of the Shenzhou 9 mission, China's first
manned space flight since 2008.
The 13-day mission will see the astronauts dock with the Tiangong-1, a space laboratory module that was launched
last September and is now orbiting Earth.
The team will test whether the module is functional, and whether it can efficiently recycle its oxygen and water.
On board, Major Liu will have her own private bedroom, according to the Chinese state media, and will be allowed an
extra ration of water for cleaning.
Born in the central Chinese city of Zhengzhou, her school friends told the China Daily newspaper she was a good
student and a keen volleyball player. After leaving high school she enrolled in a military aviation school in Changchun
and then became first a cargo and then a fighter pilot.
If the launch goes ahead as scheduled, it will be 49 years since the first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova, a
Russian described by the New York Times at the time as a "heavy-set parachutist" made her historic flight. Women
from eight different countries have become astronauts.
