Pakistan to send first astronauts for training in China

Pakistan is preparing for a historic step in space exploration as two candidates will be selected this month under the Pakistan Astronaut Programme to begin one year of training at the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA).

Those selected will be sent into space on board China’s Tiangong Space Station in October 2026, which will be Pakistan’s first human space mission.

According to the Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (Suparco), more than 300 local scientific experiments have already been shortlisted for selection for the mission.

In an agreement signed earlier this year between Suparco and CMSA, the selected astronauts will train at the Astronaut Centre of China, and one will be a scientific payload specialist, conducting experiments in space related to aerospace, biomedical science, ecology, and astronomy.

According to Suparco, the process of choosing candidates began in April 2025, and the objective of the mission is to foster scientific research and strengthen the approach to training the next generation of scientists and engineers in Pakistan.

This collaboration builds on the 2021–2030 Pakistan-China Space Cooperation Outline, which includes plans for lunar and deep space projects. Both countries recently reaffirmed their commitment to expand joint research and develop a Pakistan Space Centre.