[3][4] In 1983, he enlisted for the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and was admitted to the Air Force Second Flight Academy (空军第二飞行学院), graduating in 1987 with a bachelor's degree.

[10] The launch window of Shenzhou 5, was chosen to be 15 October 2003 because it would coincide with the conclusion of a Communist Party conference in Beijing and a day before President Hu Jintao's visit to Thailand for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.

[1] The other two potential candidates for the space mission were Nie Haisheng and Zhai Zhigang who were also on standby as backup crews on the day of the launch.

[13] Yang punctuated his journey with regular updates on his condition; variations of "I feel good", the last coming as the capsule floated to the ground after re-entry.

[14][15] He spoke to his wife as the Shenzhou 5 started its eighth orbit around the Earth, assuring her from space: "I feel very good, don't worry".

[14][15] He ate specially designed packets of shredded pork with garlic, Kung Pao chicken and eight treasure rice, along with Chinese herbal tea.

[9] In the middle of the journey, state television broadcast footage of Yang waving a small flag of the People's Republic of China and that of the United Nations inside his capsule.

[15] Yang's craft landed in the grasslands of the Chinese region of Inner Mongolia at around 06:30 CST on 16 October 2003 (22:00 UTC), having completed 14 orbits and travelled more than 600,000 km.

[19] On 7 November, Yang received the title of "Space Hero" from Jiang Zemin, the Chairman of the PRC Central Military Commission (CMC).

[1][21] In a move similar to that taken by the Soviet Union with national space flight hero Yuri Gagarin, an official decision to no longer assign him to future spaceflight missions was made.

[22] After the successful space flight of Shenzhou 5, Yang was given the position of vice-commander-in-chief of the astronauts system of China's crewed spaceflight project.