Pilots Zeeshan Ali and Khurram Daud have spent months training at the China Astronaut Research and Training Centre in Beijing. A final decision on which of the two will fly is expected in mid-to-late October.
The mission was conceived by Pakistan and China in 2019 and would mark the first time a Pakistani citizen travels to space. Pakistan’s space agency SUPARCO said the selected pilot will travel directly to space from China and return to Pakistan after completing recovery following the mission.
Training includes intensive Mandarin lessons, spacecraft systems, centrifuge exercises and preparation for working in microgravity. The pilots are also learning how to eat, sleep and repair equipment while weightless.
The two pilots were selected from around 20 finalists who emerged from an initial pool of pilots and scientists. Candidates were assessed for medical fitness, psychological resilience and their ability to withstand the high g-forces experienced during launch.
According to SUPARCO officials, pilots with experience in high-speed flying were preferred because of their ability to tolerate such forces.
The selected astronaut will serve as a “payload specialist”, meaning the main responsibility in orbit will be conducting Pakistan’s scientific experiments rather than operating the spacecraft.
SUPARCO received more than 300 research proposals from universities in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad. Chinese institutes selected four experiments for the mission, focusing on biotechnology and issues linked to food security and climate change.
The experiments will be developed and tested in SUPARCO laboratories before being approved by Chinese engineers.
The scientific payload will be relatively small compared with the wider research programme aboard Tiangong. The Chinese space station has hosted more than 180 experiments and produced hundreds of research papers and patents.
Tiangong consists of three main modules — Tianhe, Wentian and Mengtian — with a combined mass of about 77 tonnes. Its facilities support research into life sciences, materials, fluid physics, combustion and radiation exposure.
The mission also highlights Pakistan’s reliance on China for human spaceflight. The Pakistani astronaut will travel aboard a Chinese-built spacecraft, launch from a Chinese site, train under Chinese instructors and communicate in Mandarin while in orbit.
Pakistan does not currently have an independent crewed spacecraft or launch vehicle. The Pakistani astronaut is expected to spend about a week aboard Tiangong, considerably shorter than the roughly six-month missions typically undertaken by Chinese astronauts.
The astronaut is expected to return to Earth with two Chinese crew members who arrived at the station in May. The third member is expected to remain in orbit for a year as part of research into the effects of long-duration spaceflight on the human body.
China’s decision to carry a foreign astronaut would also be significant for its space programme. Since Yuri Gagarin’s first human spaceflight in 1961, citizens of around 50 countries have travelled to space, but Russia, the United States and China are the only countries to have independently launched crewed spacecraft.
SUPARCO said there is currently no official commitment or discussion about sending a Pakistani astronaut to the Moon under the same partnership.
Pakistan’s cooperation with China also includes Chinese-launched Pakistani satellites, a joint satellite-navigation system and a Pakistani-built lunar rover expected to travel aboard China’s Chang’e 8 mission around 2028.
The rover will use artificial intelligence and stereo imaging to detect obstacles, estimate depth and navigate across the lunar surface without real-time control from Earth.
For Pakistani scientists, SUPARCO officials described the upcoming astronaut mission as a major opportunity to participate directly in human spaceflight research.
