Pakistani pilots Zeeshan Ali and Khurram Daud are training in China for a planned weeklong mission to China's Tiangong station; one would become its first foreign astronaut. SUPARCO expects to choose in mid-to-late October, but no launch date has been announced.
The selected pilot will serve as a payload specialist, running Pakistan’s experiments rather than piloting the spacecraft. Chinese institutes selected four biotechnology experiments from more than 300 proposals submitted to SUPARCO; they are aimed at addressing food insecurity and climate change. SUPARCO builds and pre-tests the experiments before Chinese engineers approve them.
Pakistan has no independent launch vehicle or crewed spacecraft. The selected pilot will fly aboard a Chinese-built craft launched from China and stay about a week. SUPARCO official Amer Gilani said there is no official commitment or discussion about sending a Pakistani astronaut to the Moon. Separately, a Pakistani-built rover is due to fly on China’s Chang’e 8 mission around 2028.
