Opinion | The world must act on space debris. Hong Kong can play a leading role

Name: China launches Shenzhou-22 for first emergency mission
Uploaded: 2026-02-04T21:30:37.000Z
Description: China launches Shenzhou-22 for first emergency mission

As China’s superconnector, the city can advance space sustainability by offering its legal, regulatory, academic and financial expertise

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This screen image captured at the Beijing Aerospace Control Centre on December 9, 2025, shows Shenzhou-21 astronauts Zhang Lu and Wu Fei (right) performing extravehicular activities outside China’s orbiting space station, as part of their mission to repair the damage done to the Shenzhou-20 spacecraft by a tiny piece of space debris. Photo: Xinhua

Quentin Parker

Published: 5:30am, 5 Feb 2026

Hong Kong has a real opportunity to be a global player in the protection of our space ecosystem to ensure its sustainability. This is due to a confluence of positive circumstances, together with extensive global attention on the issue.

The Chief Executive’s Policy Unit round table last month, which I attended, has spurred efforts to promote aerospace technology development in Hong Kong and support the burgeoning space economy and its connectivity to the low-altitude economy (drones navigate using satellite data).

The evident government interest in this issue indicates it is being taken seriously. This was reflected in last month’s gathering of some of the most influential and diverse stakeholders across business, the aerospace sector, NGOs, academia and government, both in Hong Kong and on the mainland.

At the meeting, I raised a bigger-picture issue that I believe must be addressed: the threat to the entire global space economy posed by the so-called Kessler Syndrome, a situation when the amount of space junk reaches a critical tipping point and triggers a cascading wave of destruction that collapses the entire low-Earth-orbit ecosystem for satellites, space stations and space assets. This would destroy the space economy almost overnight.

In the wake of the Shenzhou-20 saga, in which a piece of debris the size of a grain of dust endangered a space mission and triggered a dramatic rescue, China is seriously looking into this threat through the lens of both economic development and space traffic management.

China launches Shenzhou-22 for first emergency mission

The rising number of space debris incidents also brought a sense of urgency to the second edition of the Space Debris Conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, last month, which attracted the participation of experts and senior representatives from 75 countries. A major Chinese delegation attended, including the deputy director of our Laboratory for Space Research at the University of Hong Kong, who was the sole Hong Kong representative.

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}As China’s superconnector, the city can advance space sustainability by offering its legal, regulatory, academic and financial expertise

As China’s superconnector, the city can advance space sustainability by offering its legal, regulatory, academic and financial expertise