Hong Kong will send its first astronaut to the Tiangong space station, the China Manned Space Agency announced on Saturday.

Lai Ka-ying, a police chief inspector and tech expert with a doctorate in computer science, will join the Shenzhou-23 mission as a payload specialist. She will become the fourth female astronaut to enter the Chinese space station.

The Shenzhou-23 crewed spacecraft is targeting a launch at 23:08 tomorrow.

According to the agency, she will work alongside two astronauts Zhu Yangzhu and Zhang Zhiyuan. Zhu, the mission commander, previously served on Shenzhou-16, while Lai and Zhang are both space-flight first-timers.

Lai was selected for training in 2024 as part of China’s fourth batch of astronauts, which comprised 10 candidates: eight pilots and two payload specialists. The latter two were chosen from the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau. Prior to her selection, Lai was attached to the police force’s Technical Services Division before being transferred to the Security Bureau.

In her PhD thesis, submitted to the University of Hong Kong (HKU) in 2011, she proposed the criminal profiling of internet pirates – individuals who illegitimately distribute copyrighted files online – to help law enforcement better understand offenders.