Hong Kong’s first astronaut, Hong Kong’s scientific research team ascends to heaven

Ming Pao China Group

Highlight 1: The first Hong Kong astronaut to be born, the Hong Kong Scientific Research Ascension Palace

Hong Kong Police Superintendent Lai Ka-ying was selected into the God 23 crew, becoming the first Hong Kong astronaut to launch into space and the first female payload expert in China. Lai holds a doctorate from the University of Hong Kong. Since August 2024, he has completed more than 200 training subjects, accumulating more than 1,700 credit hours, and passed the flight qualification assessment with excellent results.

In addition, the "Tianyun Camera", a space greenhouse gas detector developed by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, arrived at the Tiangong Space Station with Tianzhou-10 this month, becoming Hong Kong's first scientific research payload to land on the national space station.

Highlight 2: Breaking the one-year limit for the first time and paving the way for manned landing on the moon

In the past, the longest planned stay for Chinese astronauts was about half a year. This time, Shen-23 will have an astronaut for the first time to conduct a one-year long-term stay test. The microgravity environment can lead to osteoporosis, muscle atrophy and weakened cardiovascular function. Long-term closed isolation may also induce emotional problems. These changes will have a significant turning point in half a year to one year. The astronauts performing this mission will undergo all-round intensive medical monitoring, establish China's first long-term microgravity human body response map, and pave the way for manned moon landing and other deep space exploration.

The current record for the longest human stay in space is 437 days, set by Russian astronaut Polyakov in 1995.

Highlight 3: The first batch of foreign astronauts are selected

Or take off with God 24

Two Pakistani astronauts were selected as China's first batch of foreign astronauts last month and have arrived in China to begin systematic training for about six months. One of them will perform short-term missions as a payload expert in the future.

About half a year later, as one of the Shen-23 astronauts will continue to stay for the one-year experiment, it is widely speculated that the first foreign astronaut may launch with the Shen-24 and return to Earth together with the other two astronauts of the Shen-23.

(Shenzhou 23 lift-off mission)