Astronauts chat with students in Hong Kong

Marco Clark, an aerospace engineering student at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, said this was an "incredible opportunity" for Hong Kong. Young students passionate in the area should take this opportunity and strive to become the next generation of astronauts, he said.

Timothy Wong, who is also an aerospace engineering student at the university, said the most impressive part of the event was that students like him were talking with the astronauts in real time, and waving to them and seeing them waving back, which he said was a rare opportunity.

Ng Ka-wo, a science teacher at a middle school in the city, said he hoped that the call would not only help students understand the nation's aerospace development, but also encourage them to cultivate a sense of national identity.

Ng expressed his hope that the Hong Kong SAR government could allocate more resources to mathematics, physics and chemistry so that the city can make a greater contribution to the nation's science and technology endeavors.

The Shenzhou XII mission was launched on a Long March 2F carrier rocket that blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China on June 17. The astronauts entered the Tiangong space station later that day after the two spacecraft docked with each other, and they became the station's first inhabitants.

The three-month Shenzhou XII mission, the nation's seventh manned space flight, is part of the Tiangong program, which aims to complete a three-component station in a low-Earth orbit before the end of next year.