{"id":17380,"date":"2026-05-23T14:18:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T08:33:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eng.dragonmedia.com.np\/?p=17380"},"modified":"2026-05-23T14:18:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T08:33:11","slug":"hong-kongs-lai-ka-ying-becomes-chinas-fourth-batch-astronaut-chief-executive-john-lee-extends-congratulations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eng.dragonmedia.com.np\/?p=17380","title":{"rendered":"<strong>Hong Kong&#8217;s Lai Ka-ying Becomes China&#8217;s Fourth Batch Astronaut, Chief Executive John Lee Extends Congratulations<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Hong Kong \u2014 Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), John Lee, extended his heartfelt congratulations on Saturday to Lai Ka-ying (Li Jiaying) on being selected as a member of China&#8217;s fourth batch of astronauts.<\/p>\n<p>Lai Ka-ying is Hong Kong&#8217;s first female payload specialist, who is set to depart for space on Sunday night under the Shenzhou-23 mission. She is the first woman from Hong Kong to participate in China&#8217;s manned space programme, and overall the second person from Hong Kong to become an astronaut. Earlier, a male payload specialist from Hong Kong had been selected as part of China&#8217;s third batch of astronauts.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement issued by Chief Executive John Lee, he said, &#8220;Lai Ka-ying&#8217;s achievement reflects the talent and capability of Hong Kong&#8217;s youth. She is a source of pride for Hong Kong and the entire nation.&#8221; He expressed the view that the increasing participation of Hong Kong&#8217;s youth in China&#8217;s space programme has further strengthened Hong Kong&#8217;s contribution to national scientific and technological development.<\/p>\n<p>The three-member Shenzhou-23 crew, comprising Lai Ka-ying along with Zhu Yangzhu and Zhang Zhiyuan, will embark on their space journey at 11:08 p.m. Sunday (Beijing Time) from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. According to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA), one astronaut during this mission will undertake a one-year-long in-orbit stay experiment, which will be the longest duration mission in China&#8217;s manned space programme to date.<\/p>\n<p>Lai Ka-ying&#8217;s selection has been described as a historic achievement by Hong Kong&#8217;s academic and scientific community. It is believed that this will further inspire the youth of Hong Kong to pursue careers in the fields of science and technology.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fb-background-color\">\n\t\t\t  <div \n\t\t\t  \tclass = \"fb-comments\" \n\t\t\t  \tdata-href = \"https:\/\/eng.dragonmedia.com.np\/?p=17380\"\n\t\t\t  \tdata-numposts = \"10\"\n\t\t\t  \tdata-lazy = \"true\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-colorscheme = \"light\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-order-by = \"time\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-mobile=true>\n\t\t\t  <\/div><\/div>\n\t\t  <style>\n\t\t    .fb-background-color {\n\t\t\t\tbackground: #ffffff !important;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t.fb_iframe_widget_fluid_desktop iframe {\n\t\t\t    width: 100% !important;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t  <\/style>\n\t\t  ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hong Kong \u2014 Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), John Lee, extended his heartfelt congratulations on Saturday to Lai Ka-ying (Li Jiaying) on being selected as a member of China&#8217;s fourth batch of astronauts. Lai Ka-ying is Hong Kong&#8217;s first female payload specialist, who is set to depart for space on &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":17381,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[164,160],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Hong Kong&#039;s Lai Ka-ying Becomes China&#039;s Fourth Batch Astronaut, Chief Executive John Lee Extends Congratulations - Dragon Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/eng.dragonmedia.com.np\/?p=17380\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hong Kong&#039;s Lai Ka-ying Becomes China&#039;s Fourth Batch Astronaut, Chief Executive John Lee Extends Congratulations - Dragon Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Hong Kong \u2014 Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), John Lee, extended his heartfelt congratulations on Saturday to Lai Ka-ying (Li Jiaying) on being selected as a member of China&#8217;s fourth batch of astronauts. 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