Wang Yaping

In September 1991, she entered junior high school in Yantai, and in 1994 she entered Yantai Yizhong High School and graduated from high school in 1997. She was admitted to the Changchun Flight Academy of the People's Liberation Army Air Force and joined the army in August 1997. Wang Yaping is the seventh female military pilot in China. As a pilot of the Wuhan Air Force transport aircraft crew, she has participated in many major tasks such as combat readiness exercises, the Wenchuan Earthquake Relief, and the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games to eliminate clouds and reduce rain. After accumulating safe flights for 1600 hours, she was named Air Force Class II pilot. In May 2010 she officially became the second astronaut in China. At that time Wang was a captain in the People's Liberation Army Air Force.[3]

She was a candidate for the space mission Shenzhou 9 in 2012.[4] However, Liu Yang was selected over her for the historic mission of the first Chinese female space traveller.[5] Wang was a member of the backup crew for SZ-9.[6]

Wang became the second Chinese female astronaut as a member of the Shenzhou 10 spaceship crew, which orbited the Earth in June 2013,[7] and of the Tiangong-1 orbiting space station with which it docked.[8] She was known as the “Goddess II”. She was the first member of the crew announced, in April, while the remainder of the crew were announced in June.[6] Wang Yaping was one of two women in space on the 50th anniversary of Vostok 6, the first spaceflight by a woman, Valentina Tereshkova. The other woman in space on 16 June 2013 was Karen Nyberg, an American astronaut aboard the International Space Station.[9] While aboard Tiangong-1, Wang conducted scientific experiments and taught a physics lesson to Chinese students by live television broadcast.[10] She now holds the rank of Air Force Colonel who can fly four aircraft models. [11]

Wang Yaping was elected for a five-year-term as a deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC) in March 2018.[12]

According to the official Shenzhou 10 report, Wang Yaping's birth date is stated as January 1980, which is incongruent with that of the Shenzhou 9 report. In the previous report, her birth date was April 1978.[13]

Wang is married, which one former official claimed is required for all women who are part of the Chinese space program due to concerns that spaceflight could potentially harm women's fertility.[14][5] However, this requirement has been officially denied by the director of the China Astronaut Centre, stating that this is a preference but not a strict limitation.[15][16]

• Chinese women in space
• List of female astronauts

• Spacefacts biography of Wang Yaping