Shenzhou-24: Pakistani Astronaut to Become First Foreigner on China's Space Station

For the first time in the history of China's human spaceflight programme, a foreign astronaut is about to fly to its space station. China's space agency has confirmed that a Pakistani astronaut will join the crew of Shenzhou-24 for a short stay aboard the Tiangong station — a milestone that turns a two-country partnership into a crewed mission, and opens China's orbital outpost to the wider world.

A first for China's space programme

According to reports from Phys.org, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) announced on Saturday, 7 November, that a Pakistani payload specialist will fly aboard Shenzhou-24 and visit Tiangong. It will be the first joint Chinese–foreign crewed flight in China's human spaceflight history, and the first time any foreign national has set foot on the Chinese station.

The visit will be short. The Pakistani astronaut will spend a brief orbital stay aboard Tiangong and then return to Earth aboard Shenzhou-23, the spacecraft that has been docked at the station since May 2026. That return arrangement — flying up on one spacecraft and coming home on another — is itself a sign of how routine operations at Tiangong have become: the station now keeps a vehicle docked and ready, much like the International Space Station does.

Who is flying?

The astronaut has not been named yet. What is known is that two Pakistani candidates have been training in China since April: Muhammad Zeeshan Ali and Khurram Daud. One of them will make the flight, with the other presumably serving as backup. The final selection has not been publicly announced, and neither has an exact launch date.

The CMSA said only that the mission is expected to take place by the end of 2026. That leaves a narrow window, and the lack of a firm date is worth noting: crewed launch schedules shift for technical and weather reasons, and nothing here should be treated as a fixed calendar entry until the agency confirms it. Pakistan's Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal had said in October that the flight could take place on 25 November, according to Dawn — but that date comes from the minister, not from the space agency, and should be treated as his statement rather than a confirmed launch date.

Why this flight matters

The mission is the product of an agreement signed in February 2025 between Pakistan's space agency, SUPARCO, and the CMSA, under which a Pakistani astronaut would train in China and fly to Tiangong. For Pakistan, it is a national first — its first citizen in orbit — and a visible payoff from a partnership that has so far been mostly about satellites and ground infrastructure. For China, it is a demonstration that Tiangong is not only a national station but a platform it is willing to share with partners, at a time when access to the International Space Station remains politically restricted for Chinese astronauts.

The wider context matters too. As the International Space Station approaches the end of its operational life, Tiangong is positioning itself as one of the few crewed outposts left in orbit. Inviting a foreign astronaut aboard is a deliberate signal: China wants its station to be seen as open for international cooperation, and Pakistan — its closest strategic partner — is the natural first guest. Other countries will be watching closely to see whether this becomes a pattern, with more partner-nation astronauts following in the years ahead.

For now, the details to watch are simple: the name of the astronaut, the confirmed launch date, and the experiments the payload specialist will carry out during the short stay. As with any crewed mission, the science matters as much as the symbolism — a payload specialist flies to do work, not just to wave a flag. But the symbolism is hard to miss. When Shenzhou-24 lifts off, it will carry the first non-Chinese person ever to visit a Chinese space station, and a new chapter in the politics of orbit will have begun. India's own military reforms show how seriously South Asia takes its strategic competition, and the shifting politics in Washington will shape how the United States responds to China's growing presence in orbit.