In brief
Pakistani astronauts Muhammad Zeeshan Ali and Khurram Daud are training for a short‑term mission aboard China’s Shenzhou‑24, the first foreign crew to visit the Tiangong station. The astronauts will later return aboard Shenzhou‑23, marking China’s first joint manned flight. Beijing has yet to announce the launch date, and the astronauts’ exact identities remain unnamed in official releases.
A Pakistani astronaut will join China’s space station on the Shenzhou‑24 mission, becoming the first foreign visitor aboard Tiangong as part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative cooperation, Chinese state media said on Saturday.
The unnamed astronaut is set to serve as a payload specialist during a short‑term in‑orbit flight, and will later return to Earth aboard the Shenzhou‑23 spacecraft, officials reported.
Pakistani pilots Zeeshan Ali and Khurram Daud have spent months training at the China Astronaut Research and Training Center in Beijing for the mission, a Pakistani space agency official told Reuters in September.
China has not announced a launch date for the mission, and the identity of the astronaut has not yet been disclosed by the national space agency.
In April 2026, Pakistan selected two astronauts, Muhammad Zeeshan Ali and Khurram Daud, to train for China’s Tiangong space station, a China Daily post on Facebook noted, although the content of that post is no longer publicly available.
