Pakistan's first astronaut to fly on China's Shenzhou-24 mission
The payload specialist will be one of two reserve astronauts trained under a February 2025 agreement, and Ahsan Iqbal named 25 November for departure.
A Pakistani astronaut will fly on China's Shenzhou-24 crewed mission as a payload specialist, the China Manned Space Agency said, describing the flight as the first in China's manned space programme to carry a foreign astronaut alongside a Chinese crew.
The announcement was carried by APP on Saturday. The astronaut will spend a short period in orbit and return to Earth aboard the Shenzhou-23 spacecraft, Gwadar Pro reported.
Federal Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal said on 18 October that Pakistan's first astronaut would leave China's space centre for the mission on 25 November. He was speaking at the closing ceremony of World Space Week in Narowal.
China and Pakistan signed a cooperation agreement in Islamabad in February 2025 to select and train Pakistani astronauts for missions to the Chinese space station. Three rounds of selection and assessment produced two reserve astronauts, Muhammad Zeeshan Ali and Khurram Daud, who then joined China's astronaut training programme.
One of the two will carry out the crewed flight after completing the required training and evaluations, and the other will serve as a backup. The reports did not say which of the men has been assigned to the Shenzhou-24 crew, and neither gave the length of the stay in orbit.
Iqbal said in Narowal that Pakistan is working towards a lunar landing by 2035, and that cooperation with China would help the country reach new heights in space exploration.
The 25 November date comes from the minister's speech on 18 October. The agency statement carried by APP and the Gwadar Pro report did not give an independent launch date.
Both reports presented the flight as a milestone in China-Pakistan cooperation in space, coming 21 months after the training agreement was signed in the federal capital.
How the reports differ
Business Recorder's report, citing APP and Gwadar Pro, named both reserve astronauts, Muhammad Zeeshan Ali and Khurram Daud, the February 2025 training agreement signed in Islamabad, and Ahsan Iqbal's 2035 lunar-landing target. The APP report carried the same headline; the copy available from it went no further than that.
Pakistani astronaut to fly on China's Shenzhou-24 mission
Chinese state media said the astronaut will serve as payload specialist on a short stay aboard the Tiangong station, but gave no name and no launch date.
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