By Li Hongmei

Wang Yaping will go into space aboard the Shenzhou-10 mission, making her China's second female astronaut, reports Xinhuanet.

The 35-year-old air force pilot was born into a farming family in Yantai in eastern China's Shandong province. In 1997, an aviation school came to her high school seeking recruits. She was reportedly not very enthusiastic but was encouraged by her classmates to take the physical test. She was selected and subsequently enrolled in the Changchun aviation college, learning to fly four different classes of aircraft.

In 2001, Wang became a PLA Air Force pilot flying cargo planes. She has flown in multiple operations including relief efforts following the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, cloud seeding during the Beijing Olympics and various military exercises.

Wang was listed as a potential candidate for the Shenzhou space program in 2010 and was on the shortlist for the Shengzhou-9 mission last year. Though the honor of being the first Chinese woman in space ultimately went to Liu Yang, Wang looks set to be a likely crew member on the Shenzhou-10 mission.

As long as she is physically ready before the launch, Wang is very likely to take part in the Shenzhou-10 mission, said Zhang Jianqi, the general secretary of China Space Foundation.

The Shenzhou-10 is scheduled to launch in the middle of this month. As with the Shenzhou-9 mission, the spacecraft will dock with the orbiting space station Tiangong-1.