Pakistan prepares its first astronaut for a mission aboard China's Tiangong station

Pakistan’s space agency, Suparco, has sent two pilots, Zeeshan Ali and Khurram Daud, to Beijing for a rigorous training program that includes Mandarin instruction, high-g centrifuge runs and hands-on work with spacecraft systems. The pair were chosen after a competitive selection from roughly 20 finalists drawn from an original group of pilots and scientists. A final selection is slated for mid-to-late October, after which the astronaut will travel directly from China to the Tiangong station, stay about a week, and return with a Chinese crew.

In orbit, the astronaut will act as a payload specialist, running biotechnology experiments aimed at food security and climate change, selected from over 300 proposals submitted by Pakistani universities. This flight marks the first time China will transport a foreign crew member and underscores expanding Sino-Pakistani space collaboration, which also features a Pakistani-built rover for the Chang’e 8 lunar mission scheduled for 2028.