The nation’s Shenzhou XXIII manned space mission is due to lift off into orbit late on Sunday night, sending three crew members, including Hong Kong’s first astronaut Lai Ka-ying, to the Tiangong space station.

The crew members are mission commander and spaceflight engineer Colonel Zhu Yangzhu, spacecraft pilot Colonel Zhang Zhiyuan and Hong Kong’s science payload specialist Lai, who’ll travel aboard the Shenzhou XXIII spacecraft to the Tiangong space station which is orbiting the Earth at an altitude of about 400 kilometers.

Lai will be the fourth Chinese woman to go into orbit and also the first female civilian astronaut. She had served in the Hong Kong Police Force before being selected as a national astronaut, having joined the national aerospace force in August 2024.

Lai had completed more than 200 training tasks, totaling more than 1,700 hours.

The China Astronaut Research and Training Center and the China Manned Space Agency provided the photos to China Daily.