Liu Yang

According to Hong Kong’s Singtao Daily, Wu Ping, spokesman of China’s manned space project, says today that China’s first spacewoman Liu Yang’s overall performance is superb.

He also reveals that so far China’s manned space project has cost less than 40 billion yuan (US$6.28 billion) in all, and that the schedule for the manned space rendezvous of Shenzhou-10 has not yet been fixed.

Wu says, “Liu Yang is now in good mental and physical state and all her physiological indexes are normal.” Moreover, she has become adapted to the weightless environment in space, and reached tacit understanding to cooperate with Jing Haipeng and Liu Wang within a short period of time, and carried out smoothly all the space scientific experiments she is principally responsible for.

Liu Weipo, director of the office that is overall in charge of astronaut systems, says that so far there have not been experiments that consume lots of physical strength; therefore the female astronaut’s performance is not less satisfactory than males.

As for whether Liu Yang is satisfied by the special care taken of the spacewoman regarding her life and work on Shenzhou-9, including the special provision of sanitary articles and private space, Wu Ping laughed and said, “I think we have to wait for Liu Yang to give her views to us when she comes back to earth.”

Wu Ping revealed the budget from Shenzhou-7 to the fulfilment of Shenzhou-10’s tasks is approximately 19 billion yuan (US$2.98 billion).

Taking into account the 20 billion yuan (US$3.14 billion) spent from the beginning of the manned space project in 1992 to the fulfilment of Shenzhou-6’s tasks, the total cost of China’s manned space project so far is less that 40 billion yuan (US$6.28 billion).

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Categories: Defence & Aerospace

Tags: China, female astronaut, Jing Haipeng, Liu Wang, Liu Yang, Shenzhou program, Shenzhou-9, Space rendezvous, space technology, Wu Ping