Pakistan is preparing to send its first astronaut to China’s Tiangong space station to join the Shenzhou-24 mission. China’s Manned Space Agency (CMSA) announced on Saturday, that a Pakistani astronaut will join the mission as a payload specialist. The mission will be the first time a foreign astronaut visits Tiangong and the first joint flight between Chinese and foreign astronauts in China’s space program.
China has not yet revealed the name of the Pakistani astronaut or announced the launch date. Muhammad Zeeshan Ali and Khurram Daud, are candidates for this mission. One will join the flight while the other will be reserved as a backup.
Pakistan and China began this effort when Pakistan’s Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission, known as SUPARCO, and China’s Manned Space Agency signed a space cooperation agreement in Islamabad on February 28, 2025. The agreement included plans to select and train Pakistani astronauts for short missions to China’s Tiangong space station.
China selected Ali and Daud as backup astronaut candidates in April 2026 after three rounds of testing. They were chosen from around 20 finalists following checks of their health, mental strength and ability to handle the physical pressure of spaceflight. Both pilots will travel to Beijing for training at the Astronaut Center of China alongside Chinese astronauts. Their training covers spacecraft systems, space station operations, the Chinese language and safety measures for working in low gravity.
The Pakistani astronaut will serve as a payload specialist. This role focuses on conducting research in space rather than flying the spacecraft. SUPARCO official Amer Gilani told Reuters in September that Chinese research teams had selected four Pakistani biotechnology experiments from more than 300 proposals. The experiments focus on food security and climate change. Pakistani teams developed and tested them in SUPARCO laboratories before Chinese engineers approved them for the mission.
Tiangong, which means “Heavenly Palace,” serves as China’s space station and an orbiting science lab. It has three main sections named Tianhe, Wentian and Mengtian. The station orbits Earth at a low altitude, allowing astronauts to live and conduct research for months. Chinese crews usually spend six months aboard the station. Their research covers areas such as life sciences, materials and space technology. The station also allows astronauts to test new ideas in space conditions that cannot be fully recreated on Earth.
The Shenzhou-24 flight also adds a new part to space ties between Pakistan and China. China has already helped Pakistan launch several satellites, and both countries are working on more space projects. A separate project will send a rover that Pakistan built on China’s Chang’e-8 mission to the Moon around 2028. The rover will use cameras and AI to study the Moon’s surface and find a safe route.
The mission will give Pakistan its first chance to take part in a crewed mission to an orbiting space station. It will also allow Pakistani researchers to test their experiments in space and gain experience in human spaceflight. For China, the mission will bring the first foreign astronaut to its Tiangong space station as part of its human spaceflight program. The next steps include selecting one of the two candidates and announcing the launch schedule.
