First female astronaut honored outstanding woman

The All-China Women's Federation recently honored China's first female astronaut Liu Yang one of the national outstanding women.

Sending a female astronaut into space was a landmark in China's spacefaring endeavor, which also created a record in history of Chinese women, said a statement issued Thursday by the federation.

The first Chinese female astronaut, Liu is "an outstanding representative of the Chinese women," as she contributed to the successful Shenzhou-9 mission, the statement said.

Liu, together with two male crew mates Jing Haipeng and Liu Wang, entered space aboard Shenzhou-9 spacecraft on June 16. The crew successfully conducted both automatic and manual space dockings with the target orbiter of Tiangong-1.

The crew also entered Tiangong-1, which was launched in September 2011, and completed a series of scientific experiments in space before returning to Earth on June 29.

The federation urged all women nationwide to learn from Liu's fearless and adventurous spirit and make greater contribution to the nation.