Pakistani astronauts to fly on China's space station

China has confirmed that two Pakistani astronauts are training for missions to its space station, according to a report by the Associated Press of Pakistan from Beijing on September 22.

Yang Liwei, deputy chief designer of China's manned space programme and a senior astronaut, said the two astronauts are currently at the China Astronaut Research and Training Center. 'We have also announced that two Pakistani astronauts are currently undergoing training at the astronaut center. In the near future, they will fly,' APP quoted Yang as saying.

The report did not name the astronauts, provide a flight date, or say when their training began. It also did not specify whether the two would fly together on one mission or separately on different missions. No Pakistani official was quoted in the APP report.

The announcement moves the Pakistan-China crewed spaceflight arrangement from a plan into an active training phase. The Chinese statement did not say which stage of training the astronauts had reached, how long their preparation would continue, or what tasks they would perform on the station.

Yang's statement, as carried by APP, was brief. It did not include a month or year for the near-future flight, nor did it mention the astronauts' professional backgrounds or how they were selected. The absence of a named mission suggests the crew has not yet been formally assigned to a specific launch.

For Pakistan, the development signals that its long-stated ambition to place a citizen in orbit through Chinese cooperation is now being implemented. The next visible step would be an official crew announcement or assignment to a specific mission, neither of which was part of the APP report.

The report left open whether the astronauts would serve as mission specialists, flight engineers, or in another capacity. It also did not say whether Pakistani authorities had commented on the announcement or whether a formal agreement had been signed. APP filed the story as a brief news item from Beijing.