Hong Kong astronaut inspires pupils across city’s school halls in historic live lecture

Hong Kong astronaut inspires pupils across city’s school halls in historic live lecture City’s first astronaut Lai Ka-ying and crewmates offer glimpse into their lives and experiments in space, inspiring youngsters in Hong Kong and Macau Hong Kong’s first astronaut Lai Ka-ying has conducted a live lesson for students of her alma mater from the Tiangong space station, showing them how chicken wings are cooked in zero gravity and how she locates the city’s lights from the darkness of space. In a livecast to teachers and students of Tsuen Wan Public Ho Chuen Yiu Memorial College on Wednesday that was also streamed at other campuses across Hong Kong and Macau, Lai offered a glimpse of life in orbit and the experiments her team conducted. She also encouraged students during a question-and-answer session to build a solid foundation in maths and science, telling them to “keep pushing and never fear hardships”. “My education background, research and development experience, and my career have laid critical foundations for me to seize this opportunity. I hope students can constantly equip themselves and be brave and proactive as opportunities come along,” she said. Lai and her crewmates, mission commander Colonel Zhu Yangzhu and Zhang Zhiyuan, joined the “Tiangong class” at the school, jointly organised by the Hong Kong and Macau governments and the China Manned Space Agency. The 90-minute session was streamed on campuses across the city, broadcast on television and aired to students in Macau, with youth, innovation and technology representatives and a visiting Macau delegation also in attendance. Lai opened the lesson by spinning a top, echoing the gyroscope that opened China’s first Tiangong class delivered by astronaut Wang Yaping. Colonel Zhu introduced the station’s three modules and showed how recycled water also helped to produce oxygen.