A Pakistani astronaut will become the first foreigner to travel to China’s Tiangong (Heavenly Palace) space station, China’s space agency, CMSA, announced on Saturday. The astronaut will join the Shenzhou-24 crew, but the agency has not yet announced the astronaut’s name or the launch date.
The Pakistani astronaut will operate scientific instruments aboard the station and supervise experiments. After a short flight in Earth orbit, the astronaut is expected to return to Earth aboard Shenzhou-23.
China and Pakistan agreed in Islamabad in February 2025 to train Pakistani astronauts for missions to China’s space station. This is the first time foreign candidates have participated in astronaut training in the history of China’s space program.
According to China’s state news agency Xinhua, two Pakistani pilots, Muhammad Zisan Ali and Hurram Daud, began training in Beijing after a three-stage selection process concluded in early April. They practice onboard duties alongside their Chinese colleagues and receive intensive Chinese-language instruction.
After successfully completing training, one of the two pilots will travel to the station with the Shenzhou-24 crew. The other will be ready to replace the selected astronaut if necessary.
China has spent billions of euros on its space program over recent decades, and the program has developed rapidly in recent years. It sent its first astronaut into space in 2003, becoming the third country, after the Soviet Union and the United States, to put a person into Earth orbit using its own spacecraft.
China aims to send a person to the Moon by 2030 and plans to establish a research base on the lunar surface by 2035.
Source: MTI
