On March 8, 2022, Taikonaut Wang Yaping celebrated International Women’s Day from China’s Space Station Tiangong by delivering a special message to the world.
Wang Yaping says:
“Dear fellow women, hello, I’m Chinese astronaut Wang Yaping. I’m currently carrying out a six-month mission in the China space station. I am very pleased to be able to celebrate the holiday for all women around the world. I wish all my fellow women around the world a very happy International Women’s Day! I would like to take this opportunity to thank every woman for their selfless devotion. I also wish that every woman out there can reach for the brightest stars in life and pursue the career we love.”
Wang Yaping
Colonel Wang Yaping (born January 1980) is a Chinese military transport pilot and taikonaut. She was the second Chinese woman in space (after Liu Yang, who became the first Chinese woman in space on June 16, 2012) and the first Chinese woman to work in a space station for a long-duration mission. She is also the first Chinese woman to perform a spacewalk.
Wang is one of the three Shenzhou 13 crewmembers who arrived at the Tianhe space station module of China’s Tiangong Space Station on October 15, 2021. Shenzhou 13 is the eighth crewed Chinese spaceflight.
Shenzhou crewmembers are:
- Major General Zhai Zhigang, misson commander
- Colonel Wang Yaping
- Colonel Ye Guangfu
There are three planned spacewalks on the mission.
The first spacewalk was perforemd on November 7, 2021, by Zhai Zhigang and Wang Yaping. Wang made history by becoming the first Chinese woman to carry out a spacewalk. They were tasked with conducting the installation of the robotic arm suspension and the adapter and also to do typical tests of equipment. The duration of this first spacewalk was 6 hours and 25 minutes.
Ye Guangfu and Zhai Zhigang conducted the second planned spacewalk on December 7, 2021. Wang Yaping assisted the two taikonauts from inside the Tianhe module of the Tiangong space station. Ye and Zhai’s tasks included deploying an external “panoramic camera C”, installing a foot restraint platform, and testing various methods of moving objects outside the station. This second spacewalk lasted 6 hours and 11 minutes.
The first Chinese woman who travels to space twice
Wang Yaping is also the first Chinese woman who travels to space twice. In 2013, she was one of two women in space (the other being Karen Nyberg, American mechanical engineer and -now retired- NASA astronaut) on the 50th anniversary of Vostok 6, the first spaceflight by a woman, Valentina Tereshkova. Tereshkova is known for being the first woman in space, having flown a solo mission on the Vostok 6 on 16 June 1963. The Soviet cosmonaut orbited the Earth 48 times and remains the only woman to have been on a solo space mission.
If her current mission, Shenzhou 13 completes 180-day in space as planned, Wang Yaping will have spent about 195 days in space, and this will be a new record record for the Chinese astronaut. This mission is already the longest-ever single spaceflight by a Chinese woman.
Sources
- Wang Yaping on Wikipedia
- “International Women’s Day 2022: Wang Yaping, China’s 1st woman on Space Station sends message from orbit” on Space.com
- Shenzhou 13 on Wikipedia
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