A Pakistani astronaut will become the first foreign visitor to China's Tiangong space station, flying aboard the Shenzhou-24 crewed mission as a payload specialist. The China Manned Space Agency announced the selection on Saturday, 7 November, calling it the first joint flight involving Chinese and foreign astronauts in the history of China's human spaceflight programme.

The astronaut will carry out a short stay in orbit and then return to Earth aboard the Shenzhou-23 spacecraft, according to the agency. The identity of the astronaut has not yet been announced, and no launch date has been confirmed. The agency has said only that the flight is expected to take place before the end of 2026.

What the mission involves

The Pakistani crew member will serve as a payload specialist, a role centred on the scientific experiments and equipment carried into orbit. Pakistan plans to run its own scientific experiments during the visit, although the details of those experiments have not yet been made public.

The mission follows a cooperation agreement signed by China and Pakistan in Islamabad in February 2025, covering astronaut selection, training and participation in Chinese space station missions. That agreement formally launched the selection process from Pakistan, and the two countries have run it jointly since then.

How the astronaut was chosen

Candidates went through a rigorous three-stage selection and assessment process. Two Pakistani reserve astronauts were selected, and after completing all training and passing evaluation in China, one will carry out the crewed flight while the other serves as backup.

Pakistan's space agency, SUPARCO, has identified the two trainees as pilots Muhammad Zeeshan Ali and Khurram Daud, who trained at the China Astronaut Research and Training Centre in Beijing. Which of the two will fly has not been publicly announced.

Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal said in October that the flight could take place on 25 November, but that date comes from the minister rather than from the space agency, and the agency itself has not confirmed a departure day. Crewed launch schedules can shift for technical and weather reasons, so the date should not be treated as fixed until the agency confirms it.

Why the flight matters for Pakistan

For Pakistan, the mission is a national first: no Pakistani has flown in space before, and SUPARCO, founded in 1961, has launched satellites but never a person. Pakistan has no independent human spaceflight programme of its own.

The flight also builds on a wider space partnership between the two countries. Pakistan sent a satellite to the Moon aboard a Chinese lunar mission in 2024, and the two sides have cooperated on satellites and lunar exploration for several years. China is also preparing to deploy Pakistan's first lunar rover, Jinnah-1.

Tiangong, which means Heavenly Palace, has been continuously crewed since late 2022 by rotating teams of three taikonauts on six-month postings. No citizen of any other country has visited it. The Shenzhou programme has flown 23 crewed missions since its first flight in 2003.

What happens next is the announcement of the selected astronaut and a confirmed launch date. Until then, the mission stands as confirmed in outline: a Pakistani payload specialist, a short stay aboard Tiangong, and a return aboard Shenzhou-23.