Other female astronaut candidate ready to take off

Wang Yaping had thought about becoming a doctor or a lawyer to make a normal living and "felt happy for every bit of improvement in life".

However, destiny led the 32-year-old Wang - born in a village known for growing cherries in Shandong province - to have flown four types of aircraft and soon possibly a spacecraft.

If selected, Wang will become the first Chinese female astronaut and will perform a docking mission between the Shenzhou IX spacecraft and an orbiting space lab module, the Tiangong-I.