China 's first astronaut Yang Liwei on board of Shenzhou V talked to Chinese Defense Minister Cao Gangchuan at about 5:30 pm Wednesday (Beijing time) via live communication systems. With the live ...

When China’s first astronaut Yang Liwei blasted off into space in 2003, it was a history making moment that declared his country’s arrival as an emerging space power.

Astronaut Yang Liwei, the icon, is everywhere in China, lionized in the state-run press and on television not only as the country’s first man in space, but also as an elite pilot, a star student ...

When China’s first astronaut Yang Liwei blasted off into space in 2003, it was a history making moment that declared his country’s arrival as an emerging space power.

Yang, 28, is coming off a season with Inner Mongolia of the Women’s Chinese Basketball Assn. in which she averaged 13.5 points, 5.2 assists, 2.4 rebounds and 1.9 steals in 19 games.

A preselected crowd of flag-waving youngsters greeted China’s first astronaut Friday in Hong Kong, but many in this territory have been less than awed by Lt. Col. Yang Liwei’s trip through space.