{"id":31856,"date":"2026-05-25T14:50:41","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T13:50:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/?p=31856"},"modified":"2026-05-25T14:50:43","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T13:50:43","slug":"hong-kongs-first-astronaut-joins-chinese-space-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/25\/hong-kongs-first-astronaut-joins-chinese-space-mission\/","title":{"rendered":"Hong Kong\u2019s First Astronaut Joins Chinese Space Mission"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>HONG KONG (FN)<\/strong> \u2014 For the first time, a Hong Kong astronaut has launched into space, joining China\u2019s Shenzhou-23 mission to the Tiangong space station.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Li Jiaying, a 43-year-old police officer and mother of three, serves as the payload scientist in the three-member crew that blasted off Sunday night from the Gobi Desert aboard a Long March 2-F rocket. Large crowds waved Chinese flags as the spacecraft lifted off at 23:08 local time before docking with Tiangong hours later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Li\u2019s inclusion marks a historic milestone for Hong Kong, with Chief Executive John Lee calling it \u201ca proud moment.\u201d Li herself said she was inspired by Yang Liwei, China\u2019s first astronaut, and described the mission as \u201ca rare chance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The crew also includes Zhu Yangzhu, a 39-year-old space engineer, and Zhang Zhiyuan, a 39-year-old former air force pilot. At least one of them will spend a full year in orbit, a duration that would rank among the longest in human spaceflight history, just short of the 14-month record set by Russian cosmonaut Valery Polyakov in 1995.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>China\u2019s space program has accelerated in recent years, with ambitions to land humans on the moon by 2030. The Shenzhou-23 mission will study the effects of microgravity on the human body, among other experiments, building expertise in long-duration spaceflight. Analysts say this is crucial preparation for deep space exploration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The mission follows a string of achievements, including the Chang\u2019e-6 probe\u2019s recovery of rock samples from the far side of the moon in 2024 \u2014 the first time any nation has accomplished that. Later this year, China plans an orbital test of its Mengzhou spacecraft, designed to carry astronauts to the moon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Stories like Li\u2019s are seen as a way to inspire patriotism, especially among younger generations in Hong Kong and mainland China. \u201cHow high our Chinese spacecraft flies, that\u2019s how high we can hold our heads high,\u201d she said before launch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>China\u2019s push mirrors a broader global race. The United States is aiming for a crewed lunar landing by 2028, while China has set its sights on 2030. Both nations are investing heavily in technology and missions that could define the next era of human space exploration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>HONG KONG (FN) \u2014 For the first time, a Hong Kong astronaut has launched into space, joining China\u2019s Shenzhou-23 mission to the Tiangong space station. Li Jiaying, a 43-year-old police officer and mother of three, serves as the payload scientist in the three-member crew that blasted off Sunday night from the Gobi Desert aboard a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":31857,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[776,4,5],"tags":[17437,17434,17438,9931,17435,17442,17436,17440],"class_list":["post-31856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-educational","category-featured","category-international","tag-china-space-program","tag-hong-kong-astronaut","tag-li-jiaying","tag-moon-mission","tag-shenzhou-23-mission","tag-space-race","tag-tiangong-space-station","tag-zhang-zhiyuan"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.funminews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Screenshot_25-5-2026_12615_www.bbc_.com_.jpeg?fit=922%2C500&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31856"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31856\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31858,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31856\/revisions\/31858"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}