He's famed in Hong Kong for helping design its contribution to space discovery - tools for the Mir space station and European Mars missions. Ng Tze-chuen recalls in our weekly series the highs and lows of 30 years working with celebrated scientists, battling bureaucracy ... and being tailed by spies
Sometime in 1997, the two top bosses in charge of the Russian Mir space station abruptly cancelled a trip to Hong Kong; there had been a docking incident in which a space vehicle had smashed into Mir.
Until then, Alexander Alexandrov and Oleg Tsygankov thought they had time to spare away from their charge, mankind's first orbiting station in space.
They were well-satisfied with the four sets of custom-made space forceps we had designed and manufactured for Mir cosmonauts, and had agreed to inspect our latest work at the Polytechnic University. One of the most pleasant faxes I ever received was from Mr Alexandrov, who informed me in 1995 that our equipment had been stowed aboard Progress, a supply space vehicle, on its way to Mir.
The Hong Kong-made tools were the first of their kind to be integrated into an international space mission. Russian cosmonauts used them to perform various experiments, most of which had been kept secret, even to this day.
Then, in 1997, the university had sponsored a trip for the two great Russians, hoping this might further cement scientific collaboration.