Yang Liwei (born 21 June 1965) is a major general, military pilot, and People's Liberation Army Astronaut Corps (PLAAC) taikonaut. In October 2003, he became the first person sent into space by the Chinese space program. This mission, Shenzhou 5, made China the third country to independently send humans into space.

Famous Astronauts II

An astronaut (or cosmonaut) is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft.

Although generally reserved for professional space travelers, the terms are sometimes applied to anyone who travels into space, including scientists, politicians, journalists, and tourists.