{"id":663275,"date":"2026-05-25T01:43:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T01:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/663275\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T01:43:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T01:43:11","slug":"hong-kongs-first-astronaut-lai-ka-ying-lifts-off-into-space-on-shenzhou-23-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/663275\/","title":{"rendered":"Hong Kong\u2019s first astronaut Lai Ka-ying lifts off into space on Shenzhou-23 mission"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The Long March-2F rocket carrying the Shenzhou-23 spacecraft blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northwestern China\u2019s Gansu province at 11.08pm local time on Sunday, according to the China Manned Space Agency.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The rocket left the launchpad with a deafening blast and sent massive clouds of sand high up into the sky.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Mission control declared the launch a success about 20 minutes after lift-off.<\/p>\n<p>The crew included <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/news\/hong-kong\/society\/article\/3354601\/lai-ka-ying-hong-kongs-first-astronaut-her-mentor-saw-her-talent-years-ago?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Lai Ka-ying<\/a>, the Hong Kong police superintendent and tech specialist who will serve as the payload specialist.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">According to the live stream on state broadcaster CCTV, Lai\u2019s first words in space to the command centre were \u201cfeeling good\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The Shenzhou-23 mission lifts off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in Gansu province on Sunday night. Photo: CCTV\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/f4b92d11-90e0-44d4-b606-bbfa98fee2ec_bd94fec9.jpg\" title=\"The Shenzhou-23 mission lifts off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in Gansu province on Sunday night. Photo: CCTV\"\/>The Shenzhou-23 mission lifts off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in Gansu province on Sunday night. Photo: CCTV<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Long March-2F rocket carrying the Shenzhou-23 spacecraft blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northwestern&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":663276,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[144,150420,93591,5425,290177,290175,150421,290176,269071,79,158124,168157,290173,193,95878,290174,290143],"class_list":["post-663275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-china","tag-china-manned-space-agency","tag-gobi-desert","tag-hong-kong","tag-hong-kong-science-and-technology-parks","tag-international-space-science-institute-beijing","tag-jiuquan-satellite-launch-centre","tag-long-march-f-rocket","tag-macquarie-university","tag-science","tag-shenzhou","tag-shenzhou-23","tag-shenzhou-20-incident","tag-space","tag-sun-dong","tag-valeri-polyakov","tag-zhu-yangzhu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=663275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/663276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=663275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=663275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=663275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}