A Pakistani astronaut is set to become the first foreign national to visit China’s Tiangong space station, Chinese state media reported on Saturday. The astronaut will fly as a payload specialist on the Shenzhou-24 mission. According to state broadcaster CCTV, citing the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA), it will be the first spaceflight to combine Chinese and foreign astronauts.
China has not publicly named the Pakistani astronaut chosen for the flight. Two candidates, Khurram Daud and Muhammad Zeeshan Ali, have been training in China under a bilateral astronaut cooperation programme, but the person selected for Shenzhou-24 has not been announced.
Training and selection of Pakistani candidates
Pakistan and China signed an agreement in February 2025 to set up a programme for training Pakistani astronauts, China’s state news agency Xinhua reported. Under the deal, Pakistani candidates would train in China before taking part in short-term missions alongside Chinese crews in the following years. The two countries shortlisted candidates in February 2026, and SUPARCO later identified Daud and Ali for advanced training.
A Pakistani space agency official told a news agency in September that both men had spent months at the China Astronaut Research and Training Centre in Beijing. One of them is expected to become Pakistan’s first astronaut to participate in a mission aboard Tiangong.
Mission timeline and return flight
The CMSA said the Pakistani astronaut will carry out a short orbital flight before returning to Earth aboard the Shenzhou-23 spacecraft, which docked with Tiangong in May. Beijing has not announced a launch date, although the mission is expected to take place by the end of 2026.
China has invested heavily in its space programme, expanding its human spaceflight capabilities and developing its own permanently crewed station. It has also set a target of landing astronauts on the Moon by 2030. The Shenzhou-24 flight forms part of Beijing’s wider space cooperation under its Belt and Road Initiative, and Pakistan and China maintain close diplomatic and strategic ties, with Beijing remaining Pakistan’s largest trading partner and a major foreign investor.
