A Hong Kong police officer and mother of three has become the first resident of the city to travel to space, launching aboard China's Shenzhou-23 spacecraft on Sunday night as part of an ambitious mission that includes the country's longest-ever crewed stay in orbit. Li Jiaying, 43, serves as payload scientist on the three-member crew, which docked at China's Tiangong space station — whose name means "Heavenly Palace" — within hours of lifting off at 23:08 local time from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in the arid Gobi desert of northwestern China. Large crowds waved Chinese flags as the Long March 2-F rocket climbed into the night sky.

Joining Li on the mission are commander Zhu Yangzhu, a 39-year-old space engineer who previously flew on the Shenzhou-16 mission, and pilot Zhang Zhiyuan, a 39-year-old former air force fighter pilot on his first spaceflight. One member of the crew will remain aboard Tiangong for a full year — a record for a Chinese astronaut and one of the longest space missions ever undertaken — with the decision on who stays to be made later based on how the mission progresses. The remaining crew will serve the standard six-month rotation.

The year-long stay is central to the mission's scientific purpose. Authorities plan to conduct more than 100 research projects spanning space biology, materials science, fluid physics, aerospace medicine and new space technologies. A particular focus will be mapping in precise detail — down to the cellular and genetic level — how the human body adapts to prolonged weightlessness. "A year in space is not simply a doubling of two six-month missions," said Zhang Jingbo, spokesperson for the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA). Astrophysicist Richard de Grijs of Macquarie University in Australia noted that such extended stays push both hardware and human physiology into a fundamentally different operational regime, building China's expertise for future deep-space exploration.

Tiangong, which orbits Earth at roughly 400 kilometres altitude and has been permanently crewed since 2022, exists in part because US legislation bars NASA from cooperating with China, citing espionage and security concerns. The station forms a cornerstone of China's broader space ambitions, which include landing taikonauts — as Chinese astronauts are known — on the moon by 2030. The US is targeting a crewed lunar landing by 2028. Later this year, China plans an orbital test flight of its Mengzhou spacecraft, designed specifically to carry astronauts to the moon. The chief scientist of China's lunar programme has suggested the 2030 deadline may in fact be a conservative estimate.

Li's landmark flight has also drawn attention at home and in Hong Kong, where Chief Executive John Lee called her inclusion a "historic" moment. Analysts say stories of prominent Hong Kong figures succeeding within China's national programmes can serve to foster patriotism, particularly among younger people. Li herself struck an inspirational note before departure, saying she was motivated by Yang Liwei, the first Chinese person sent to space, and describing her selection simply as "a rare chance — why not try?"