China reveals 3-person Shenzhou 23 crew, including Hong Kong's 1st astronaut

space.com May 24, 2026

China reveals 3-person Shenzhou 23 crew, including Hong Kong’s 1st astronaut

Curated by Shubham · TechCapsules · May 24, 2026

AI-summarised brief · reviewed before publication

China has named the three astronauts for the Shenzhou 23 mission to the Tiangong space station, including Hong Kong's first astronaut, Lai Ka-ying. The crew, commanded by Zhu Yangzhu, will launch on a Long March 2F rocket on May 24 from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. Lai, a former Hong Kong police officer, will make his first trip to space, while Zhu flew on the Shenzhou 16 mission in 2023. The mission will also see one astronaut stay in orbit for a continuous year, paving the way for future extended stays. The Shenzhou 23 spacecraft features enhanced protection for its portview windows.

💡 Why It Matters

· Lai's inclusion marks a significant milestone for Hong Kong's space program, while the extended stay of one astronaut will test China's capabilities for long-duration spaceflight.

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Satellite AI Inference Clears Orbit: Gemma 3 Ran Aboard YAM-9 in April

Loft Orbital's YAM-9 spacecraft successfully demonstrated the first publicly disclosed execution of a vision-language model in orbit. Aboard the spacecraft, Google DeepMind's Gemma 3 performed natural language queries, classified Earth imagery, and produced plain-English summaries without transmitting raw pixels to the ground. This achievement marks a significant shift in the value layer of Earth observation, moving from ground-based processing to onboard inference capabilities. The model, running on an Nvidia Jetson Orin AGX graphics processing unit, utilized a software harness developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to fit within the spacecraft's memory budget and processing constraints.

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space.com · Jun 17

‘Best. Mars. Mission. Ever.’ Scientists hail MAVEN’s legacy as NASA retires Red…

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spacenews.com · Jun 17

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💡 This investment will accelerate Dawn Aerospace's growth in emerging markets, including hypersonics testing and in-space mobility. By delivering reusable, responsive access across the air and space domain, Dawn can unlock the economic potential of space and solve critical national security challenges.

spacenews.com · Jun 17

America’s next economic frontier is 240,000 miles away

NASA's Artemis 2 astronauts have completed the first crewed lunar orbit in 50 years, marking a new era of returning to the moon. The moon is no longer just a place of scientific curiosity, but America's next great economic frontier, with its surface holding valuable resources such as water ice, hydrogen, and helium-3. Commercial space companies like Firefly Aerospace are already involved, with plans for repeatable missions to the moon, including a mission to the far side within the year. The goal is to establish a permanent moon base, with mining, resource extraction, and manufacturing driving a massive economic boom. NASA and commercial space companies are working together to achieve this, with the global space economy expected to reach $1.8 trillion by 2035. The moon's resources will support sustained human presence and enable new industries beyond Earth, with the US at the forefront.

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space.com · Jun 17

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💡 The Swiss decision highlights the financial sustainability of Copernicus' open-data policy, which may become a concern if more countries question why they should pay into a system that non-contributors can still use.