First Chinese Man in Space—Yang Liwei 中国进入太空第一人 —杨利伟

杨利伟搭乘神舟五号飞船进行的太空之旅不仅是对个人极限的挑战，也是对中国科技和航天梦想的重大贡献，成为中国现代科技史上的一个里程碑。他本人也因此成了航天英雄，受到了全国人民的广泛尊敬和爱戴。一起来了解下他的首次太空飞行故事吧！

On October 15， 2003， China’s firstmanned spacecraft， Shenzhou V， the wassuccessfully 1）launched from the JiuquanSatellite Launch Center and sent its astronautYang Liwei to the space with the “Long MarchCZ-2F” carrier rocket. With the launch， Chinabecame the third country， after Russia and theUnited States， to has the ability to carry out themanned space flights.

Yang Liwei was born in 1965 inSuizhong County in Northeast China’sLiaoning Province.

In September 1983， Yang Liwei joinedthe Chinese People’s Liberation Army （PLA）and entered the No. 8 Aviation College ofthe PLA Air Force. Yang graduated in 1987with the equivalent of a bachelor’s degree.

In January 1998， Yang Liwei wasselected as a member of the group of Chineseastronauts set to train to fly the Project 921spacecraft. He was one of 14 chosen fromamong 1，500 pilot 2）candidates. The teamunderwent five years of 3）rigorous physical，psychological， and technical training at theAstronaut Training Base in Beijing.

Yang Liwei noted the study was muchmore difficult than that in college. Therewere more than 30 subjects he had to havea good command of. Yang’s English was notgood， so in order to improve in this area， heoften called his wife to serve as his English learning partner. Practice makes perfect. At the exam， Yang got a score of100.

Besides some basic lessons in aviation dynamics， air dynamics，geophysics， meteorology， and astronomy， the astronauts also had tolearn survival skills under extreme conditions in case their capsule landedanywhere on the earth， whether on land or at sea.

After a long time of training， on September 20， 2003， the 14astronauts began to exercise in the real Shenzhou V spacecraft at theJiuquan Satellite Launch Center.

On October 15， 2003， Yang was launched into space from the JiuquanSatellite Launch Center. In space， Yang completed 14 orbits and traveledmore than 600，000 km， before finishing China’s first manned space flight，and again standing on Chinese soil at 7：00 am， on October 16， 2003.

His flight not only represents a breakthrough in China’s spaceindustry， but also greatly contributes to the world’s space industry.

Yang hopes that more young people will become interested in participating in space travel.Yang said our nation’s mannedspace program continued to gain4）momentum and our nationwould continue to 5）recruit youngcandidates. He hopes more andmore young people can be a partof this in the near future.

1） launch v. 发射

2） candidate n. 候选人

3） rigorous adj. 严格的

4） momentum n. 推动力；动力；势头

5） recruit v. 招募

2003 年10 月15 日，中国第一艘载人飞船神舟五号在酒泉卫星发射中心成功发射，用长征二号F 运载火箭将航天员杨利伟送入太空。（剩余678字）