ASTRONAUT Lieutenant-Colonel Yang Liwei was born in June, 1965, in Suizhong County of Northeast China's Liaoning Province. He joined the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) at the age of 18.

He graduated from the No. 8 Aviation College of the PLA Air Force in 1987 with a bachelor's degree and became a fighter pilot.

As a pilot, he accumulated 1,350 hours of flight experience.

In January 1998, Yang became a member of China's first team of astronauts.

He was selected as one of the final candidates to be the country's first astronaut after his excellent performance in the five-year training programme.

The other two candidates were Nie Haisheng and Zhai Zhigang.

All the astronauts were selected from top fighter pilots, who were familiar with complicated avionic systems.

The trained Chinese astronauts were all about 1.70 metres tall and weighed around 65 kilograms in order to fit the limited room inside the spaceship and to keep the load of the flight moderate.

Usually to train as an astronaut takes three years.

Russia has helped to train Chinese astronauts, based on a co-operation pact. (Star News)