Lai Ka-ying suffers from motion sickness, cannot stand hot weather, was not a top student and did not speak Mandarin – all of which made the 43-year-old mother of three an unlikely pick as Hong Kong’s first astronaut.

But the Hong Kong-born payload specialist on China’s Shenzhou-23 mission, which is expected to blast off on Sunday night and head to the Tiangong space station, made it through almost two years of training.

“I held a ‘let’s give it a try’ attitude,” Lai said in interviews with state media, recalling how she managed to pass the gruelling selection process. “I am prone to getting carsick and seasick. But when I sat in the rotating chair, I easily passed the test.”

She added: “In the centrifuge test, I was in total confusion, everything went blurry. But I persevered through sheer willpower.”

Working in the Hong Kong Police Force, where long hours and irregular shifts are the norm, helped her easily handle training involving 72 hours without sleep.