At the Dawn of a “Second Space Boom”, Hong Kong Eyes Its Opportunity

Professor Zhonghua Yao, director of HKU’s Laboratory for Space Research (LSR), has been elected a council member of the 11th Council of the Chinese Society of Space Research (CSSR), a role he hopes will bring HKU’s planetary-science expertise into closer conversation with future national missions.

For Yao, the appointment comes at a crucial moment for HKU and the city it calls home, opening a timely opportunity in what he calls “the second space boom”.

“The coming second space boom will be fundamentally different from the first: it will be initiated by humanity as a whole, with countries exploring together within a framework of cooperation,” he told The HKU Lead.

The appointment carries a significance beyond the title. The CSSR is a national academic society, and its 11th General Assembly elected Yao on 20 September, according to the LSR. Yao said he would use the position to promote HKU’s participation in future national space missions and to strengthen the LSR’s research and development capability.

His work offers a glimpse of the science HKU hopes to contribute. Yao studies the space environments of Earth and the giant planets, including magnetic reconnection, planetary aurorae and the systems of charged particles that surround them. Earlier this year, an HKU-led team using NASA’s Cassini spacecraft data reported that Saturn’s magnetic “cusp” regions are commonly shifted towards the afternoon side—unlike Earth’s more symmetrical pattern. The study linked the difference to Saturn’s rapid rotation and electrically charged material released by its moons.

Such comparative research has been a thread through Yao’s career. The European Geosciences Union awarded him its 2018 Arne Richter Award for Outstanding Early Career Scientists, citing his work on how energy is transferred and dissipated in planets across the Solar System and his contribution to comparative planetary science. Earlier this year, Yao was awarded the Young Scientists Fund (Type A)—formerly the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars—making him the first space scientist in Hong Kong to receive the honour.

Hong Kong’s window of opportunity may be widening. The 2025 Policy Address said that an aerospace-technology special call had allocated more than HK$100 million to six university research-and-development projects. The 2026 Policy Address has announced a new round, focused on research connected to national space missions, including satellite technologies, exploration instruments, aerospace materials and remote sensing. The call is planned as a competitive programme; it does not represent an award to HKU or to Yao’s laboratory.

The opportunity is also visible in HKU’s alumni community. Dr Lai Ka-ying, who holds BSc, MPhil and PhD degrees from HKU, is Hong Kong’s first payload specialist and a member of the three-person Shenzhou-23 crew. On 9 September, the crew’s “Tiangong Class” from China’s space station was streamed to a campus gathering at Sun Yat-sen Place (Happy Park), where students and staff followed in-orbit demonstrations, expert analysis and a question-and-answer session with the crew. The mission is carrying out more than 100 science and applications projects in life sciences, materials science, fluid physics and medicine. Yao was also one of three local space experts officially invited to the event. In an on-site talk, he shared insights on China’s Jupiter exploration plans and the opportunities they may create for Hong Kong.

Yao argues that Hong Kong’s institutional position can add something distinctive to that national effort. “Hong Kong’s advantage under ‘one country, two systems’ enables it to serve as a super-connector for aerospace cooperation and academic exchange between China and other countries,” he wrote in the same opinion statement.

Whether that opportunity becomes missions, instruments or new research partnerships remains to be seen. But Yao’s election gives HKU a seat in a new CSSR council just as the University is sharpening its case that its planetary research can help Hong Kong look further into space.