Taikonauts

Famous Chinese astronauts (or 'taikonauts')

Since China first manned launch in 2003 there were 10 taikonauts up to 2014, also Chen Dong in Shenzhou 11 October 17 2016-November 18 2016.

Yang Liwei First "Chinese national" in space Shenzhou 5 (October 15, 2003)

Liu Yang First Chinese woman in space Shenzhou 9 (June 16-29, 2012)

The first group of 14 taikonauts were selected out of the active pilots from the PLA Air Force at the beginning of 1998, who have successfully completed basic trainings and trainings on flight procedures and task simulation, joint rehearsals and so on. Having undergone strict trainings and tests, the first crew are all qualified for manned space flights. In May 2010, the 2nd crew, including 5 male astronauts and 2 female astronauts were selected. Till now, a total of 8 astronauts have undertaken manned space flight tasks, of whom are: Yang Liwei, Fei Junlong, Nie Haisheng, Zhai Zhigang, Liu Boming, Jing Haipeng, Liu Wang and Liu Yang.

Yang Liwei

Born June, 1965 in Suizhong County, Liaoning Province

Nationality: Han

Bachelor’s degree

Shenzhou 5 (October 15, 2003)

Time in space:

21 hours, 22 minutes, 45 seconds

Although Yang Liwei was the First "Chinese National" in space in 2003 the NASA astronaut Prof Taylor Gun-Jin Wang who was born in Jiangxi southeast China, Wang became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1975 and became the first ethnically Chinese person in space aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger mission STS-51-B launched on the 29th of April 1985 for 1 week.