Pakistan is set to send its first astronaut to space, with one Pakistani national confirmed to join the Shenzhou-24 crewed flight mission as a payload specialist, according to a statement by the China Manned Space Agency reported by APP news agency and Gwadar Pro on Saturday. The mission will mark the first joint spaceflight involving Chinese and foreign astronauts in the history of the Chinese manned space programme, and represents a significant milestone in cooperation between the two countries in space exploration. After a short stay in orbit, the Pakistani astronaut will return to Earth aboard the Shenzhou-23 spacecraft.
The path to the mission began in February 2025, when China and Pakistan signed a cooperation agreement in Islamabad to select and train Pakistani astronauts for missions to the Chinese space station. Following three rounds of rigorous selection and assessment, Muhammad Zeeshan Ali and Khurram Daud were chosen as reserve astronauts and subsequently joined the astronaut training programme in China. Both candidates have undergone training and evaluation for the flight, and once the process is complete, one of the two will carry out the crewed mission while the other will serve as the backup. The agency has not yet named which of the two candidates will make the journey.
The announcement follows earlier remarks by Federal Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal, who said on October 18 that the first Pakistani astronaut would embark on a space mission from the Chinese space centre on November 25. Speaking at the concluding ceremony of World Space Week in Narowal, he also said Pakistan aims to achieve a lunar landing by 2035, and that cooperation with China would help the country reach new heights in space exploration. A payload specialist is an astronaut selected to carry out specific experiments or tasks tied to a mission rather than to fly or operate the spacecraft, which means the role is typically centred on research and demonstration work during the time spent aboard the station.
For Pakistan, the mission carries weight beyond the flight itself. The national space agency, SUPARCO, has expanded its satellite programme in recent years, and a crewed mission adds a human spaceflight element that few countries in the region have achieved. Space cooperation with China, which operates its own space station and has opened it to international partners, offers Pakistan a route into crewed missions without the cost of building a launch capability from scratch. The first joint flight with a foreign astronaut also gives China a chance to demonstrate the station as a platform for international collaboration. Further details, including the exact launch date, the name of the selected astronaut, and the experiments to be carried out in orbit, are expected to be shared by the Chinese space agency as the mission approaches.
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