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Victoria Bela

China’s first man in space, Yang Liwei, has officially retired from active duty, but he has not stopped training and remains ready to put on a spacesuit again if needed.
He said in a CCTV interview on Saturday that the country’s first group of astronauts had been grounded in October according to regulations, but “if our motherland needs us, we can resume flights”.
Yang, now a deputy chief designer for China’s crewed space programme, was the first Chinese national to reach Earth’s orbit in 2003.
On October 15 of that year, he blasted off aboard the Shenzhou-5 spacecraft on a Long March-2F rocket, just 16 hours after being told that he had been selected for the mission from a shortlist of three astronauts, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA).
During the Shenzhou-5 mission, Yang spent 21 hours in space, orbiting the Earth 14 times.
It was a turning point for the nation’s human space flight programme, which began in 1992, and made China the third country to independently send humans into space.
Sean O’Keefe, Nasa administrator at the time of the Shenzhou-5 mission, said it was an important achievement, and that the US space agency wished China “a continued safe human space flight programme”.
More than 20 years later, 28 Chinese citizens have travelled to Earth’s orbit.
The CMSA said in 2009 that despite a late start, China was able to “leapfrog” much of the 40-year-long development process undergone by the US and Soviet Union.
China now aims to land its first astronauts on the moon by 2030. The US is also pushing ahead with plans to land astronauts back on the lunar surface for the first time in more than 50 years.

Yang was born in China’s northeastern province of Liaoning in 1965. In 1983, he was admitted to an air force flight academy and became a fighter pilot, according to state news agency Xinhua.
In 1996, China began a recruitment drive among air force pilots for its first cohort of astronaut candidates. Two years later, 14 were selected from more than 1,500 applicants.
Yang and the rest of the first cohort spent five years in rigorous training, which included weightlessness simulation training at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre in Russia, according to Xinhua.
After his mission, Yang was recognised as a “space hero” by the Communist Party and State Council and served in several administrative roles before taking up his current position in 2019.
Other members of the first group of astronauts have also set space records.
Nie Haisheng and Fei Junlong became the first two-person Chinese crew to go to space during the Shenzhou-6 mission in 2005.
Zhai Zhigang, Liu Boming and Jing Haipeng became the first three-person Chinese crew to go to space during the Shenzhou-7 mission in 2008. Jing was also the first Chinese astronaut to make a repeat flight to space.
Liu Wang was part of the Shenzhou-9 mission, and he and his crewmates were the first Chinese astronauts to achieve docking with another spacecraft in orbit when they connected with the Tiangong-1 space lab.
Five members of the first cohort retired in 2014 without reaching space.
In 2010, China added another seven astronaut candidates – five men and two women – during its second round of recruitment.
In 2020, the country selected its third cohort of astronauts, which had 18 members.
In 2024, Beijing announced its fourth group of 10 astronaut candidates, including one from Hong Kong and one from Macau. Following this announcement, China said it would soon invite foreign astronauts to take part in the selection and training process.
Last year, China and Pakistan signed a cooperation agreement to train Pakistani astronauts for a mission to China’s Tiangong space station, with the aim to launch later this year, according to Xinhua.
In October, CMSA announced that two Pakistani astronauts would undergo training alongside Chinese astronauts, and that one would be selected as a payload specialist for a short space mission.


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First Chinese astronaut to reach Earth’s orbit says he and his cohort are ready to return to space ‘if our motherland needs us’


First Chinese astronaut to reach Earth’s orbit says he and his cohort are ready to return to space ‘if our motherland needs us’.


China's space programme

Space

China’s first man in space Yang Liwei officially retires from active duty

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}First Chinese astronaut to reach Earth’s orbit says he and his cohort are ready to return to space ‘if our motherland needs us’

First Chinese astronaut to reach Earth’s orbit says he and his cohort are ready to return to space ‘if our motherland needs us’