Among the crew of Shenzhou-9 was Liu Yang, the first Chinese woman in space.

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It took less than eight minutes for the craft to dock safely with taikonauts Jing Haipeng, Liu Wang and Liu Yang on board.

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Thirty-three-year-old Liu Yang, also a military pilot, has on the other hand emerged as China's first woman astronaut after just two years of training.

BBC: China launches space mission with first woman astronaut

The other two taikonauts, Jing Haipeng and Liu Yang, provided assistance.

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Lydia Chen, Raymond Liu, Phil Xie, Ada Qin, Echo Yang, Rice Mi, Sunny Jiang, Rachel Lu and Tracy Tong (forbes china).

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