Hong Kong museums to host exhibition on nation’s space programme featuring rare artefacts such as spacesuit, re-entry capsule

Two Hong Kong museums will celebrate the nation’s space programme with an exhibition featuring rare artefacts including a spacesuit, replica carrier rockets and the re-entry capsule from the Shenzhou-13 spacecraft.

The China Manned Space Exhibition at the Science Museum and the Museum of History explores the technical and engineering feats underpinning the country’s space programme and its development over the past three decades. The exhibition will run from Friday to February 18, and admission is free.

While Hong Kong hosted similar exhibitions in 2003, 2008 and 2012, the organising team felt the 30th anniversary of the programme deserved a grand effort.

Speaking at the opening ceremony at the Science Museum on Thursday, Lin Xiqiang, the deputy director general of China’s Manned Space Agency, said he hoped the exhibition would help Hongkongers better understand and take part in flight engineering.

“So much has happened in 30 years … there have been many advancements and innovative technologies, so we thought it was meaningful to have two connected exhibitions to give a comprehensive introduction to the public,” said Kenus Yan Chui-ho, a curator at the science museum.

More than 30 items will be on display, including the re-entry capsule from the Shenzhou-10 mission. The exhibition also features interactive installations such as one that mimics the experience of using a joystick to dock with the space station.

Planning and curating the exhibition took several months, according to Lawrence Lee Wai-kwan, the director of the science museum. He said engineers needed to test whether the floor was strong enough to bear the weight of the three-tonne (6,613lbs) return capsule from the Shenzhou-13 spacecraft before installing it.