With a Long March-II-F carrier rocket pushing Shenzhou-5 into the orbit some300 kilometers away from the Earth Wednesday morning， Yang Liwei， 38， turns outto be Chinas first astronaut in space.
　　At 9 a.m. Wednesday， Yang， aboard Shenzhou-5 white in color， took off fromthe Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on the Gobi desert in Northwest Chinas GansuProvince.
　　He is expected to land somewhere on a central Inner Mongolia grassland at 7a.m. Thursday， after orbiting the earth 14 times. Yang will be traveling some500，000 kilometers in space in 21 hours， a travelers record in the worlds mostpopulous nation with a 5，000-year-old civilization.
　　When Shenzhou-5 entered orbit on schedule， the ground command centerreceived a message sent by Yang from outer space， saying that everything goessmoothly.His name， however， had remained unknown until 5 a.m. Wednesday.
　　Yang， from Liaoning Province and aged 38， is a member of the Astronaut Teamof PLA. Yang was born in June 1965 in Suizhong County of Northeast ChinasLiaoning Province and joined the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army （PLA） at 18.He graduated from the No. 8 Aviation College of the PLA Air Force in 1987 with abachelors degree and became a fighter pilot.
　　As a Chinese astronaut of the first generation， he was an excellent fighter pilotof PLA Air Force with the flight experience of 1，350 hours. In 1998， he was selectedas an astronaut. After five years hard training and study， he stood out excellent inall of his studies. Before the launch， the command center of the manned space flightmade the decision that Yang was to carry out the first manned flight.
　　At 5 a.m. sharp Wednesday， Yang was seen waving his hands to a group ofjournalists from inside a glass-shielded room at the Jiuquan launch center， with twoother astronauts sitting beside him as backups.