Key Takeaways
- Two Pakistani pilots are training for a mission to China’s Tiangong space station.
- The mission is part of broader cooperation between Pakistan and China under the Belt and Road Initiative.
- The chosen astronaut will be the first foreigner to board the Tiangong space station.
Two Pakistani pilots, Zeeshan Ali and Khurram Daud, are undergoing intensive training at the China Astronaut Research and Training Center in Beijing. The training includes learning Mandarin, centrifuge drills, and adapting to microgravity and g-forces.
The mission, conceived in 2019, is part of the broader cooperation between Pakistan and China under the Belt and Road Initiative, which has already produced Chinese-launched Pakistani satellites and a joint satellite-navigation system.
Amer Gilani, who oversees human spaceflight cooperation at Pakistan’s space agency, SUPARCO, said a final decision on which pilot will fly is expected in mid-to-late October.
The chosen astronaut will not return to Pakistan before launch, setting off directly from training in China and returning home after a recovery period following the return to Earth.
Training includes intensive Chinese-language instruction, learning spacecraft systems, and adapting to both microgravity and the g-forces of liftoff.
The two men beat out roughly 20 finalists from an initial Pakistani pool of pilots and scientists, screened for medical fitness, psychological resilience, and a tolerance for g-forces.
Of more than 300 proposals from Pakistani universities, Chinese institutes picked four for this flight: biotechnology experiments aimed at combating food insecurity and climate change.
Every experiment is built and pre-tested in SUPARCO’s own labs before Chinese engineers sign off, making this a rare case where Pakistani technology gets validated on an international platform.
The scientific payload is modest compared to Tiangong’s three modules, which weigh about 77 metric tons combined and house roughly 14 experiment racks spanning life sciences and other research areas.
