Biography

Colonel Wang Yaping is a Chinese military pilot and astronaut. Wang was the second female astronaut to be named by the CNSA, and the second Chinese woman in space. She was a candidate for the space mission Shenzhou 9 in 2012. However, Liu Yang was selected over her for the historic mission of the first Chinese female space traveller. Wang was a member of the backup crew for SZ-9. Wang became the second Chinese female astronaut as a member of the Shenzhou 10 spaceship crew, which orbited the earth in June 2013, and of the Tiangong-1 orbiting space station with which it docked. She was the first member of the crew announced, in April, while the remainder of the crew were announced in June. 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. While aboard Tiangong-1, Wang conducted scientific experiments and taught a physics lesson to Chinese students by live television broadcast.