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Liu Yang Becomes China's First Female Astronaut

Posted by timothy on from the holding-up-half-of-heaven dept.

China launched Saturday a rocket bearing three astronauts and an experimental orbiting module intended to presage a full-fledged space station at the end of this decade. While that's big news in itself, the launch also marks the first trip for a female Chinese astronaut. The BBC has a brief video, including part of a pre-launch press conference introducing 33-year-old astronaut Liu Yang, as well as her crewmates.

6 of 229 comments (clear)

  1. Taïkonaut by manu0601 · · Score: 4, Informative

    An astronaut is american. A cosmonaut is russian. A spationaut is french. And a chineese person in the sky is a taïkonaute.

    1. Re:Taïkonaut by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 3, Informative

      At least according to Wikipedia, Chinese themselves use the word "astronaut" in their official English publications (and "cosmonaut" in Russian ones).

      The argument is silly, anyway. "Astron" is not English at all, and "cosmos", while Russian, is directly loaned from Greek. Why should we insist on using a Chinese word for a Chinese astronaut?

  2. Congratulations for being the 56th female visitor! by zill · · Score: 3, Informative

    As of 2012, fifty-six women have flown in space, out of 525 total space travelers. By country of origin: 1 each from China, France, UK, South Korea; 2 each from Canada and Japan, 3 from Soviet Union/Russia, and 45 from the United States.

  3. Re:Congratulations for being the 56th female visit by aa_trna_syn · · Score: 5, Informative

    This June 16th is also the 49th anniversary of Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova's trip to space. She was the first woman in space. She piloted the Vostok 6 on 16 June 1963, to become both the first woman and the first civilian to fly in space.

  4. Re:HAIL CHINA! by sphealey · · Score: 3, Informative

    If you are referring to the Radical Right talking point of the Community Reinvestment Act, which required mortgage lenders not to discriminate against qualified buyers, it was passed in 1977. That's a heck of a delayed reaction there as compared to, I dunno, the Gramm family's work in repealing Glass-Steagall in 1999.

    sPh

  5. Re:Okay, and? by fritsd · · Score: 3, Informative

    As I understand it, no scars and perfect teeth are also because you don't want your scars to open in zero-g (including C-section scars) and you can't have a root canal filling or exploding fillings (because of air pocket) in space. I read a while ago that the astronauts and cosmonauts for the ISS also get a dental check-up before they're allowed to launch.

    --
    To be, or not to be: isn't that quite logical, Slashdot Beta?