Two Pakistani Pilots Train in China for Historic Flight to Tiangong Space Station

Two Pakistani pilots are training in Beijing to become the first astronaut from their country to fly aboard China's Tiangong space station. Pilots Muhammad Zeeshan Ali and Khurram Daud were chosen for their background in high-speed flying because they are familiar with handling high-level g-forces.

Training and Selection

The training at the China Astronaut Research and Training Center includes learning Mandarin, centrifuge drills, and adapting to weightlessness and liftoff forces. Amer Gilani, who oversees human spaceflight cooperation at Pakistan's space agency SUPARCO, said a final decision on which of the two will fly is expected in mid-to-late October. The chosen pilot will launch directly from training in China and serve as a payload specialist to run science experiments.

Scientific Experiments

Chinese institutes picked four biotechnology proposals from over 300 university submissions across Karachi, Lahore, and Islamabad. These experiments aim to help fight food insecurity and climate change, and every test is pre-tested in SUPARCO labs before Chinese engineers sign off. The selected astronaut will spend a week in space and return to Earth with two members of a Chinese crew that arrived at the station in May.

Context

This mission is part of broader space and infrastructure cooperation between Beijing and Islamabad that includes satellites and a lunar rover. Pakistan currently lacks its own independent launch vehicle or crewed spacecraft, making this partnership essential for its first human spaceflight milestone.