The China Manned Space Agency unveiled the three-member crew for the Shenzhou-XXIII manned area flight on May 23, together with Lai Ka-ying — a payload specialist from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region who would be the metropolis’s first astronaut.
I warmly congratulate Lai and supply our honest gratitude to the central authorities for its continued belief in and help for the SAR’s innovation group. I additionally want the Shenzhou XXIII mission each success in what will likely be a milestone in China’s area endeavors, in addition to a defining chapter in Hong Kong’s contributions to the nation’s science and know-how prowess.
Lai, who’s of Han ethnicity, along with her ancestral roots in Shunde, Guangdong province, was born in Hong Kong in 1982. She entered public service in September 2006 and at present serves as a superintendent within the Hong Kong Police Force. Chosen in June 2024 as a payload specialist in China’s fourth cohort of astronauts, Lai has now been assigned to the Shenzhou XXIII crew following complete analysis. Her choice displays each her skilled excellence and the nation’s confidence within the HKSAR’s innovation expertise and institutional strengths.
China’s area journey has spanned greater than 20 years of outstanding achievements — from its first crewed mission in 2003 to successive Shenzhou missions, the development and steady operation of the Tiangong area station, the Chang’e lunar exploration program, the Tianwen Mars mission, and the completion of the Beidou international navigation satellite tv for pc system. The program has progressed from foundational breakthroughs to extra systematic capabilities that ship scientific returns, industrial spillovers and public advantages.
The Shenzhou XXIII mission will additional advance the appliance section of the area station, deepen in-orbit scientific experiments, and open new alternatives in supplies science, life sciences, area robotics and vitality administration below microgravity, making the participation of a Hong Kong specialist each symbolically and virtually vital.
Over the years, I’ve adopted launches on website, together with visits to the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Gansu province and, in April this yr, to the Wenchang Space Launch Site. Observing the meticulous course of from meeting and testing to countdown and liftoff permits one to understand the institutional depth, supply-chain capabilities and mission assurance tradition underpinning the nation’s area achievements. These experiences reinforce my view that the subsequent stage of growth will more and more focus on functions and commercialization constructed on sturdy nationwide infrastructure.
Space represents each nationwide aspirations and sensible alternatives, the place scientific progress contributes to financial growth, public companies and international cooperation. Hong Kong brings to this frontier not solely its analysis and monetary strengths, but additionally its worldwide views and connectivity
Under “one country, two systems”, the HKSAR is uniquely positioned with world-class universities, an internationalized analysis ecosystem, and globally-recognized skilled and monetary companies. Public initiatives, equivalent to InnoHK, together with the Hong Kong Space Robotics and Energy Centre, are supporting town’s participation in nationwide tasks and in-orbit science. To translate potential into tangible outcomes, deeper project-based collaboration ought to be inspired, significantly with the University of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, focusing on areas like area supplies and in-orbit manufacturing, vitality and thermal administration, area robotics and synthetic intelligence, life sciences, and remote-sensing analytics and knowledge platforms.
Beyond human spaceflights, civilian satellites are forming an more and more full worth chain protecting platforms, payloads, functions and knowledge companies, with sturdy funding potential pushed by increasing demand in city governance, emergency response, inexperienced transition, good mobility and maritime administration. At the identical time, provide capabilities in launch, integration and testing proceed to enhance, whereas technological spillovers from distant sensing, satellite tv for pc web and area robotics are producing broader financial worth. The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area gives clear benefits by combining manufacturing energy, utility eventualities and capital markets, supporting a mannequin of analysis in Hong Kong, manufacturing within the Greater Bay Area, and wider utility throughout the Chinese mainland and past.
Lai’s choice is anticipated to encourage extra younger Hong Kong folks to pursue careers in science and engineering, and town ought to goal to maneuver from participation to contribution by growing unique applied sciences, scalable merchandise and internationally aligned requirements that help the nation’s modernization and area growth. This requires nearer alignment between analysis and mission wants, stronger integration of finance and know-how by way of cross-border funding and collaboration, and extra energetic expertise exchanges amongst universities, analysis establishments and enterprises, together with participation in nationwide coaching and analysis applications.
Space represents each nationwide aspirations and sensible alternatives, the place scientific progress contributes to financial growth, public companies and international cooperation. Hong Kong brings to this frontier not solely its analysis and monetary strengths, but additionally its worldwide views and connectivity. With sustained coverage help and institutional innovation, the SAR can turn into an essential node within the nation’s area ecosystem, serving to to translate concepts into applied sciences, applied sciences into missions, and missions into advantages shared by the nation and the world. As Hong Kong applauds the anticipated profitable launch of Shenzhou XXIII, I as soon as once more lengthen my congratulations to Lai and my finest needs for the success of this historic mission.
I’m assured this milestone will open a brand new chapter wherein Hong Kong’s contributions to the nation’s area endeavors will likely be steady, concrete and widely known.
The writer, a National Committee member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference National Committee, is president of the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants and adviser to the Ministry of Finance of the People’s Republic of China.
The views don’t essentially replicate these of China Daily.