Yang Liwei
Shenzhou 5 was launched at 09:00 (UTC +8) from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, a launch base in the Gobi Desert in Gansu Province, entering orbit 343 km above Earth at 09:10 (UTC +8) with astronaut Yang Liwei (杨利伟), a 38 year-old Lieutenant Colonel in the People's Liberation Army and former fighter pilot. The launch made China the third country to independently launch a person into space, after the Soviet Union and the United States. The launch of the Shenzhou was the result of a crewed space program which began in 1992.