Pakistani astronaut to join China's Shenzhou-24 mission as payload specialist
A Pakistani specialist will become the first foreign astronaut on the Chinese space station under an orbital flight plan.
A Pakistani astronaut will join China's Shenzhou-24 mission to the Tiangong space station as a payload specialist, according to a report by ua.news citing CCTV and the China Manned Space Agency ua.news
ua.newsua.newsOpen source ↗. This will mark the first joint orbital flight in the history of China's manned space program involving foreign personnel.
The visiting specialist is scheduled to perform a short-term mission on the Chinese orbital complex before returning to Earth aboard the Shenzhou-23 spacecraft. The mission represents the first time a foreign national will enter the Chinese space station.
Official launch dates and the final selection for the Shenzhou-24 crew have not been announced by Beijing. Earlier, representatives of Pakistan's space agency stated that pilots Zeeshan Ali and Khurram Dawood had undergone training for several months at the China Astronaut Research and Training Center in Beijing. The initiative is organized as part of bilateral scientific and technical cooperation between China and Pakistan.
