A Pakistani astronaut will fly on China's Shenzhou-24 crewed mission as a payload specialist, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said on Saturday — the first time a foreign astronaut will visit China's space station, Xinhua reported.

Source: Xinhua via State Council Information Office

After completing a short on-orbit flight aboard the station, the Pakistani astronaut will return to Earth aboard the Shenzhou-23 spacecraft, the agency said. The mission will mark the first joint flight involving Chinese and foreign astronauts in the history of China's manned space programme.

The flight is the concrete outcome of a manned-space cooperation agreement signed in Islamabad on February 28, 2025, between the CMSA and Pakistan's Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO), covering the selection and training of Pakistani astronauts and their participation in China's space station flight missions, according to reporting of the CMSA announcement.

Source: Wedoany reporting of CMSA announcement

Two candidates trained in China, one will fly

Pakistani astronaut selection was carried out in three stages — preliminary, secondary and final — and identified two Pakistani reserve astronauts, according to the announcement coverage. One will fly as the payload specialist, mainly undertaking Pakistan's scientific experiments and related space-application tasks, while the second will serve as backup.

In April 2026, the CMSA confirmed that both Pakistani candidates had entered the China Astronaut Research and Training Center to train alongside Chinese astronauts. Earlier Pakistani and Chinese reporting named the two candidates as Muhammad Zeeshan Ali and Khurram Daud; the CMSA's Saturday announcement, as carried by Xinhua, did not name which of them will fly.

How the mission fits China's 2026 station plan

Under China's 2026 annual crewed space mission plan, Shenzhou-23 and Shenzhou-24 will dock with the radial port and the forward port respectively of the Tianhe core module of China's space station, according to the announcement coverage. The Pakistani specialist's short stay is built around that rotation: arriving on one crew vehicle and leaving on the other.

For Pakistan, the flight puts its first astronaut aboard a station that has hosted only Chinese nationals since it became operational, and deepens the China-Pakistan partnership into human spaceflight. For China, flying a first foreign crew member is a landmark in opening its station to partner countries. No launch date was given in Saturday's announcement.