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.[citation needed]
On June 16, 2012, Major Liu Yang was the first female astronaut launched into space aboard the Shenzhou 9 with two male counterparts. Liu was not drawn from the fighter pilot cadre, but instead is a veteran PLAAF transport pilot. The mission took off at 6:37 p.m. (1237 GMT) from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on the edge of the Gobi Desert.[1]
