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As of 2023, China has successfully launched two female taikonauts: Liu Yang and Wang Yaping. In 2012, China launched Shenzhou-9 with China’s first female taikonaut, Liu Yang. Since 2013, China’s second woman taikonaut, Wang Yaping, embarked on Shenzhou 10 and 13, becoming the first Chinese woman to travel to space twice. According to the China National Space Administration, many women hold leadership positions in the Chinese space program and actively contribute to the Chinese space effort.

History
China launched its first manned space mission, the Shenzhou 5, in 2003. Following the success of this mission, Gu Xiulian, president of the All-China Women's Federation (ACWF), pronounced at a gathering that women should be trained for space missions after China's first piloted space trip. This was accepted and led to minor changes in space capsule design to accommodate both sexes.

Though China ruled that women could become taikonauts in 2003, the first Chinese manned mission with a woman onboard was not launched until 2012. This mission, the Shenzhou-9, included Liu Yang. The Shenzhou-9 was launched on the 49th anniversary of the launch of Vostok 6, the first spaceshot of a woman (Valentina Tereshkova).

In 2013, the Shenzhou-10 launched with Wang Yaping aboard, making her the second female taikonaut. On 15 October 2021, Colonel Wang was the first Chinese woman to travel twice to space aboard Shenzhou-13.

Liu Yang
Liu Yang became the first female Chinese taikonaut in 2012. Throughout her astronautical career, Liu has been awarded the title of “Heroic Astronaut” and received the Third-class Space Service Medal for her work abord the Shenzhou-9 and Shenzhou-14 missions, respectively. .

Growing up in the Henan, Liu aspired to become a lawyer or a bus conductor. Showing exemplary academic performance in her formative schooling years, Liu’s professors signed her up in 1997 to attend the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Air Force Aviation University in Changchun to become a pilot. Liu excelled in her training flying cargo planes and eventually became the Deputy Head of her flying unit. In May 2010, Yang was approached by the PLA’s taikonaut corps with an offer to join.

Liu flew her first mission aboard the Shenzhou-9 in 2012, during which the 3-person crew achieved China’s first manned docking mission by joining with the Tiangong-1 experimental space station. On this mission, Liu performed the first manual docking of the flight and was in charge of medical experiments throughout the flight’s duration. The taikonauts returned 12 days after takeoff.

After returning to Earth, Liu became a representative in the 13th National People’s Congress and the vice president of the All-China Women’s Federation.

Liu returned to space in 2022 aboard the Shenzhou-14, with the goal of staying on the Tiangong space station for 6 months to oversee the final portions of construction.

Wang Yaping
Wang Yaping’s space career began in 2013 aboard the Shenzhou-10 where she became the second female taikonaut. During this mission, Wang and her two colleagues successfully docked, undocked, and boarded the Tiangong-1. From the space station, she gave a live-streamed physics lesson to around 80,000 schools, reaching 60 million students and teachers. Wang returned to Earth aboard the Shenzhou-10 15 days after takeoff.

Wang returned to space on the Shenzhou-13 on October 15, 2021, becoming the first female to live onboard the Tiangong space station. Due to the success of the live-stream on the Shenzhou-10, it was planned for her to give another lesson during this mission. On November 8, 2023, she completed a 6.5 hour spacewalk making her the 16th female astronaut and first female taikonaut to do so. Wang returned to Earth aboard the Shenzhou-13 in April of 2022, 182 days after takeoff. Wang and her 2 colleagues set a record for most days in orbit by any Taikonaut.

Obstacles Faced by Female Taikonauts
According to Jun Lu, Senior Engineer at Beijing Institute of Tracking and Telecommunications Technology and Deputy Chief Designer of BeiDou Grounded Test and Validation System, “[women’s] qualities of being meticulous, dedicated, responsible and their ability to work under high pressure for a long time” allow them to thrive in the field due to the “high risk and long development cycle” of space technology development. However, Chinese taikonaut academies institute more stringent qualifications for female taikonauts than their male counterparts. Due to fears that childbirth and subsequent family obligations would disrupt training for two to three years, taikonaut academies favor women who are married and already have children. Additionally, women are more closely examined for scars, heavy odors, and decayed teeth, as these traits could cause “disaster” in space.

When interviewing women taikonauts, the media was more interested in their family lives and female physiology than when interviewing male taikonauts. Questions regarding menstruation are often brought up as well.

Pang Zhihao, a Chinese National Space Administration official, claims women taikonauts should also look their best at all times. He revealed that both Tiangong-1 and Tiangong were stocked with hygiene products and cosmetics during Wang Yaping’s missions. In a video broadcast by China Central Television, he declares that "[f]emale astronauts may be in better condition after putting on makeup”.

Non-Taikonaut Personnel
A study published in the National Science Review found that women make up a large portion of space engineers working on Chinese missions. The Chinese BeiDou Navigation Satellite System has three Chinese women leading the project as sub-system chief designers, with others filling senior positions such as deputy commanders and deputy chief engineers. The Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China has more female employees in IT than any other department. The department oversees work such as network configuration and telephone routing.

One notable woman working on China’s space program is 24-year-old Zhou Chengyu, the first and youngest female space commander in China. She first began working at the Wenchang site as an operator after she graduated from university at the beginning of 2020 and, by the end of the year, had become the commander of her unit. She worked on the rocket connector system for the Chang’e-5 moon mission, which aimed to collect moon rocks for scientific testing. Chang’e-5 successfully launched in December 2020. Zhou went viral on social media for her accomplishments, with many users calling her a "frontline soldier in the field of aerospace" and a "big sister".