Chinese women in space Chinese women in space In 2012, China became the third nation to send women into space with its own space program, after the Soviet Union/Russia and the United States, 49 years after the first female cosmonaut, Valentina Tereshkova. Following the successful piloted flight of "Shenzhou 5" in October 2003, China announced plans to send a woman into space as well. Gu Xiulian, president of the All-China Women's Federation (ACWF), told a gathering that she proposed that women, too, should be trained for space missions after China's first piloted space trip. Initially, the criteria for women to be selected, included having
The Woman in the Moon mythology, at the time of the very beginning of the human race, when the first woman was not yet created. A personified goddess of Nature, accompanied by Concord and Discord ("For Nature works her will from contraries"), descends to a pastoral Earth inhabited by four shepherds. At their petition, Nature breathes life into a clothed statue of the first woman. Concord seals her soul to her body with an embrace, and the new woman is given the best gifts of the seven planets of traditional astronomy and astrology. She is named Pandora. The seven planets, however, are unhappy that Pandora