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Pakistani Astronaut to Fly to China’s Space StationTechnology
A Pakistani astronaut will join China’s Shenzhou-24 mission and become the first foreign national to board the Tiangong space station, the China Manned Space Agency has announced.
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A Pakistani astronaut will join the crew of China’s Shenzhou-24 spacecraft on a mission that would make him the first foreign national to board China’s Tiangong space station, the China Manned Space Agency announced on Saturday, 7 November.
According to the agency, the Pakistani astronaut will serve as a payload specialist, complete a short stay in orbit and then return to Earth aboard the Shenzhou-23 spacecraft. The mission would mark the first joint flight involving Chinese and foreign astronauts in the history of China’s manned space programme, China’s official news agency Xinhua reported.
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Two Pakistani candidates, pilots Muhammad Zeeshan Ali and Khurram Daud, have been training in China alongside their Chinese counterparts, and the plan is for one of them to be selected for the short-term spaceflight. The agency has not said which of the two will fly, and it has not announced a launch date. The training has focused on hands-on operational capabilities and has also involved intensive Chinese language instruction, Xinhua reported.
The flight is part of an agreement on astronaut cooperation signed by China and Pakistan in February 2025, under which Pakistan became the first country to send an astronaut to China’s space station under the programme. The selection and training of the Pakistani candidates has been carried out jointly by the China Manned Space Agency and Pakistan’s space agency, SUPARCO.
A first for China’s space station
Since Tiangong began operations, every crew member aboard has been Chinese. The arrival of a Pakistani astronaut would therefore be a milestone for the station, which China operates as an alternative to the International Space Station. China is also preparing for its first crewed lunar landing by 2030, while the United States, seen as China’s top space rival, aims to land astronauts on the Moon’s surface in 2028.
For Pakistan, the mission is a landmark moment in its space programme, which has grown steadily in recent years through cooperation with China. The country’s first satellite launches and its lunar CubeSat, carried aboard China’s Chang’e-6 mission in 2024, were earlier steps on the same path. A Pakistani flag flying aboard Tiangong would put the country among the small group of nations whose citizens have lived and worked in orbit.
The space agency said only that the flight would take place by the end of the year. Until the crew is named, the two candidates will continue their preparations in China, with one of them set to make history as the first Pakistani, and the first foreigner, to visit the Chinese space station.
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