Liu Wang (, born 25 March 1969) is a Chinese

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its Aircraft flight control system, directional flight controls. Some other aircrew, aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are al ...

selected as part of the

Shenzhou program Shenzhou may refer to: * Shenzhou, or "Divine Land", one of the Chinese names of China * Shenzhou program, a crewed spaceflight initiative by the People's Republic of China * Shenzhou (spacecraft), spacecraft from China which first carried a Chi ...

Early life

He was born in a rural village in the

Pingyao County Pingyao County is a county in Jinzhong in central Shanxi Province, China. It is home to Pingyao Ancient City, a AAAAA-rated tourist attraction, preserving a great deal of architecture from the Ming and Qing dynasties. It spans an area of , an ...

Shanxi Shanxi; Chinese postal romanization, formerly romanised as Shansi is a Provinces of China, province in North China. Its capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-level cities are Changzhi a ...

province of China on March 25, 1969 to a family of farmers. He enrolled at the

PLA Air Force Aviation University The People's Liberation Army Air Force Aviation University () is a military university in Changchun, Jilin, China. As of fall 2014, the university has 7 campuses, consists of 7 departments, covers a total area of , with more than 19,000,000 s ...

in 1988 and studied to be a fighter pilot.

Air Force career

Then, he became a fighter pilot in the

People's Liberation Army Air Force The People's Liberation Army Air Force, also referred to as the Chinese Air Force () or the People's Air Force (), is the primary aerial warfare service of the People's Liberation Army. The PLAAF controls most of the PLA's air assets, includi ...

. He was selected to be an astronaut in 1998.

Spaceflight career

Liu Wang was selected to be part of the crew of

Shenzhou 9 Shenzhou 9 () was the fourth crewed spacecraft flight of China's Shenzhou program, launched at 18:37:24 CST (10:37:24 UTC), 16 June 2012. Shenzhou 9 was the second spacecraft and first crewed mission and expedition to dock with the Tiangong-1 ...

, the first crewed mission to the first Chinese space station,

Tiangong 1 Tiangong-1 () was China's first prototype space station. It orbited Earth from September 2011 to April 2018, serving as both a crewed laboratory and an experimental testbed to demonstrate orbital rendezvous and docking capabilities during it ...

. Also on the mission is

Jing Haipeng Jing Haipeng (; born 24 October 1966) is a major general of the People's Liberation Army Ground Force (PLAGF) in active service as a vice-commander of the 82nd Group Army. A fighter pilot in the PLA Air Force (PLAAF), he was selected to be ...

, the first Chinese repeat space traveller, and the first Chinese female astronaut, Liu Yang.Space.com
"China Unveils Astronaut Crew, 1st Female Spaceflyer, for Saturday Launch"
15 June 2012,

Clara Moskowitz Clara Moskowitz is an American science journalist who works as a senior editor for ''Scientific American''. Career Moskowitz majored in astronomy and physics at Wesleyan University, graduating in 2005. She went to the University of California, S ...

References

External links

Liu Wang
at the

Encyclopedia Astronautica The ''Encyclopedia Astronautica'' is a reference web site on Space exploration, space travel. The encyclopedia includes 79,433 articles with 13,741 illustrations, a comprehensive catalog of missiles, spacecraft, space technology, astronauts, an ...

. Accessed 23 July 2005.
Spacefacts biography of Liu Wang
1969 births Living people Shenzhou program astronauts People's Liberation Army Astronaut Corps People's Liberation Army Air Force personnel {{Astronaut-stub

Early life

Air Force career

Spaceflight career

See also

References

External links