Yang Liwei (杨利伟), born on June 21, 1965, is an astronaut and the People's Republic of China's first man in outer space. Yang was selected as an astronaut candidate in 1998 and has trained for space flight since then. He was chosen from the final pool of 14 Chinese astronauts to fly on China's first manned space mission.
He was launched into space aboard his Shenzhou 5 spacecraft atop a Long March 2F rocket ( 长征
2号
F型火箭
) from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 9am local time on October 15, 2003. Prior to his launch almost nothing was made public about the Chinese astronaut candidates; his selection for the Shenzhou 5 launch was only leaked to the media one day before the launch.
Yang's craft landed in the grasslands of the Chinese region of Inner Mongolia at around 6:30 a.m. on October 16, 2003 (22:00 GMT), having completed 14 orbits and travelled more than 600,000 km. Yang left the capsule about 15 minutes after landing, and was congratulated by Premier of the People's Republic of China Wen Jiabao (温家宝
).
Popular myth has it that the serpentine Great Wall of China, built more than 2,000 years ago to keep out marauding nomads, is the only man-made object visible from space. However, Yang told state television that he did not see the Great Wall from space.
In fact many man-made objects on earth such as cities can be seen from space, but the Great Wall is too narrow for a person to see from orbit.
On November 7 Yang received the title of "Space Hero" from Jiang Zemin (江泽民
), the former Chinese President and Chairman of the Central Military Council (CMC). He also received a badge of honour during a ceremony at the Great Hall of the People.
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