Pakistani astronaut to join China's Shenzhou-24 mission, state media says

China has said a Pakistani astronaut will fly to its space station this year, the first time a foreigner will visit it. Chinese state broadcaster CCTV, citing the China Manned Space Agency, reported on Saturday that the astronaut will join the Shenzhou-24 mission as a payload specialist, as part of bilateral cooperation under Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative.

What the announcement says

• The astronaut will take part as a payload specialist, meaning a scientist-passenger who runs experiments and does not operate the spacecraft.
• After completing a short-term flight in orbit, the astronaut will return to Earth aboard the Shenzhou-23 spacecraft.
• It will be the first joint spaceflight with both Chinese and foreign astronauts in the history of China’s manned space programme, which CCTV described as part of Beijing’s “space diplomacy”.

Who will fly

China did not name the astronaut. Two Pakistani pilots, Zeeshan Ali and Khurram Daud, have trained for months at the China Astronaut Research and Training Center in Beijing, a Pakistani space agency official told Reuters in September. Only one of them is expected to go. Earlier reports carried by the Tribune also quoted Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal as saying that Pakistan would launch its first astronaut from China on November 25. The Chinese statement did not give a launch date, so that date should be treated as the Pakistani government’s figure, not a confirmed Chinese one.

What we reported earlier on the mission

In September we reported on the two pilots in final training. That report, based on Pakistan’s space agency Suparco, said:

• The pilots were picked from roughly 20 finalists, and were screened for fitness and the ability to cope with high g-forces.
• Suparco ran a year-long campaign that drew more than 300 research proposals from universities, and Chinese institutes chose four biotechnology experiments for the flight, aimed at food security and climate change.
• The stay was expected to last about a week, with the astronaut communicating in Mandarin.
• A Pakistani-built rover is due to fly on China’s Chang’e 8 lunar mission around 2028.

Background: a 2019 agreement

The two countries agreed the idea in 2019, according to our earlier reporting. Since Yuri Gagarin’s flight in 1961, citizens of about 50 countries have flown in space, but only Russia, the United States and China have launched their own crewed spacecraft, so a Pakistani seat on a Chinese flight puts Pakistan in a small group of countries whose citizens have flown on a partner’s vehicle. The chosen astronaut is expected to travel to space straight from training in China.

Why it matters

For Pakistan, the flight would put a citizen in space for the first time. For China, it is a first as well: after building its own station, it is now opening it to a guest from a close partner. The announcement also shows how far the Pakistan-China relationship now reaches beyond roads and ports into science and technology.

Two points are still open. China has not named the astronaut or given a date, and the mission details may change as the launch approaches. What to watch is the official announcement of the name and launch date, how the Pakistani experiments are carried out in orbit, and what comes next after what a Pakistani official has called the country’s “maiden mission”.