Profile: Liu Yang: No ceiling for China's first woman taikonaut

JIUQUAN, June 4 (Xinhua) -- Which is the most difficult, becoming a mother of two, earning a doctoral degree, or flying into space? Taikonaut Liu Yang has already set an example of women who can have it all -- a fulfilling career and family.

As China's Shenzhou-14 spaceship is slated to lift off on June 5, Liu is ready for a new height in her career -- her second space mission. She will stay in space for six months, working with two male colleagues to complete the construction of China's space station.

"My girl and boy asked me to take more photos of the universe so that they could share them with their classmates. I will also write my blessings to them 'in the stars' during the space trip," Liu said in an interview before her new mission.

"I will do what I promised them."

Liu became China's first woman taikonaut in 2012, spending 13 days in the Shenzhou-9. After that, she pursued further study at university and raised two children while carrying on training.

"I feel more confident and relaxed," Liu told the media on Saturday ahead of the launch of Shenzhou-14. In the limelight, the slender space heroine with an ear-length haircut exhibited a calm and controlled quality, just as she did during her first space mission a decade ago.

Her two colleagues are Chen Dong and Cai Xuzhe this time.

Her second mission will allow Liu to prove her mettle again. Tasks that await the Shenzhou-14 crew include extravehicular activities, mechanical arm tests, and experiments in lab modules.

During the Shenzhou-9 mission, Liu was in charge of performing scientific experiments. She also assisted two other taikonauts in conducting the manned docking of the spacecraft with the experimental space lab Tiangong-1.

Liu trained 15 years before turning into China's first woman taikonaut.

Liu didn't aspire to be a taikonaut as a child. Born in 1978, she was a pupil chess champion in her hometown, Zhengzhou City in Henan Province. She once dreamed of being a lawyer, a bus conductress, or an office lady before the People's Liberation Army Air Force came to her city to recruit pilots when she was in her final year in senior high.

She was selected into China's taikonaut candidates pool in 2010 after having a record of 1,680 hours of safe flights for 13 years as a transport aircraft pilot in the Air Force.

Liu spent the next two years taking intensive astronautics courses and arduous physical training. One of the most challenging exercises was the rotating chair, which stimulates the sense of balance to help reduce side effects on the human body due to space zero gravity. It takes 15 minutes to get full marks, but Liu was dizzy and sick in five minutes when she first started the training. She told herself to persist, trying every method to divert her attention from the giddy feeling, and finally made it.

She never went shopping or saw a movie to disengage her from training in the two years. Her hard work singled her out in the final test before the Shenzhou-9 mission.

Since she joined the Air Force in 1997, Liu has been known for her hard work. "When Chairman Mao Zedong met our country's first female pilots, he encouraged them to be fighters, not performers. His words have been my motto since I began flying aircraft," Liu said.

She won fame in 2003 for making a safe emergency landing after birds struck one engine of the plane she was piloting.

Echoing a famous Chairman Mao quote, a spokesperson for China's manned space program said after her first mission: "Women hold up half the sky. Human space missions without women are incomplete."

The "first woman taikonaut" title has given Liu many accolades and responsibilities: she became a role model, a deputy to China's top legislature, and the vice-chairperson of the All-China Women's Federation.

However, her two distinguished achievements as a career woman might be her two children, born during the decade after her first space mission, and a doctoral degree in sociology from the prestigious Tsinghua University while mothering the two.

While behind every successful man is a woman. For Liu, it's appropriate, and vice versa.

Liu's husband, Zhang Hua, takes all the housework and looks after their children during her absence. He can fully understand her work as he used to be a staff member at the ground command center for the Chinese space program.

The couple, whose wedding anniversary happens to be on China's Space Day, will be apart again for a while, but as Zhang once told his wife, "Even if you're in space, I can see you longer than anyone else on Earth."