An experience that is out of this world

Country's first female astronaut gets students to reach for the stars at a space culture project launch.

Space brings out the child in all of us. Gazing at the stars can unleash the most profound emotions. The sense of wonder is magnified when we look at our planet, our fragile home from space. Few have traveled beyond the planet's environs but all admit that the first glimpse of Earth from space is a deeply emotional experience.

Liu Yang, China's first woman in space, is no exception. She remembers exactly what she said when she first saw the blue orb quietly glowing in the vastness of space.

"Look! The Earth really is a sphere," she blurted out to her fellow astronauts. She was recalling her experience to a rapt audience of students at a primary and middle school in Beijing Space City where the China Academy of Space Technology is also located.

Thousands more students at four other schools in Tianjin municipality and Hebei province listened to her speech through a livestreaming platform at the event to launch the Knowledge Popularization Project on Nov 12. The event was co-organized by the "Our Space" Media Convergence Center at Beijing Space City and the Juvenile Space Administration in a bid to popularize space among young people.

"I used to have space fantasies as a child," the Shenzhou IX astronaut, who spent 13 days in space in 2012, says to the students.

"Remain curious.

"I'm lucky I was born and live in a great time and great country which enabled me to realize my dream,"' she tells the students, implying that the students could one day realize their space dream too.