Pakistani Astronaut Books Flight to Chinese Space Station

China and Pakistan signed an agreement to send the first Pakistani astronaut to China's Tiangong space station, making Pakistan the first foreign nation to participate in China's human spaceflight program.

The agreement was signed on February 28, 2025, at the Prime Minister's House in Islamabad by Lin Xiqiang, deputy director of the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA), and Muhammad Yousuf Khan, chairman of Pakistan's Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO), in the presence of Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

Under the agreement, the Chinese government will select and train Pakistani astronauts over the next year. One of the candidates will join Chinese taikonauts for short-term missions aboard Tiangong, which orbits approximately 400 kilometers above Earth.

China has been launching satellites for Pakistan for years, supporting its space ambitions. Pakistan’s first digital communications satellite, Badr-1, was launched on a Chinese Long March 2E rocket in 1990, and Pakistan’s CubeSat accompanied China’s Chang’e-6 lunar probe earlier this year.

China developed its own space station after being excluded from the International Space Station (ISS) due to concerns over the involvement of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) in its space program. The Tiangong station is also seen as a new area of competition between China and the U.S., with both nations planning future lunar missions.

CMSA’s Lin Xiqiang recently stated that China aims to land astronauts on the Moon before 2030, while the U.S. plans to return to the lunar surface by 2025.