China’s landmark space capsule launch puts it in company of U.S., Russia

By By Barbara Demick

Los Angeles Times (MCT)

Published: Saturday, June 16 2012 11:24 p.m. MDT

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Summary

It might not have been a giant step for mankind, but the launch Saturday of a piloted space capsule to dock with China’s space station prototype marked the country’s breakthrough into the exclusive club once made up only of the United States and Russia.

Like her male colleagues, Jing Haipeng and Liu Wang, Liu is an officer of the People’s Liberation Army and, as the Chinese state media noted, a member of the Communist Party. In interviews, Liu said she’d wanted to become a bus driver as a child.

As a pilot, she is credited with making a daring emergency landing in 2003 after a flock of birds struck the engine of her plane. The Chinese state press has compared her to Sally Ride and Valentina Tereshkova, the first American and Russian women in space respectively.

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Topics: t000009858,t000140624,t000002537,t000009860

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