China's Space Station to Welcome First Foreign Astronaut: Two Pakistani Astronauts Selected
According to the China Manned Space Engineering Office, the first selection of foreign astronauts for the Chinese Manned Space Program has been successfully completed, with two Pakistani candidates ultimately selected. They will soon come to China as reserve astronauts to participate in training, and after completing all training and passing the assessment, one of them will participate in a flight mission as a payload specialist, becoming the first foreign astronaut to enter the Chinese space station.
According to the flight mission plan of the Chinese space station, Pakistani astronauts will be arranged to enter the Chinese space station with Chinese astronauts to carry out short-term flight missions within the next few years.
This cooperation originated from the space cooperation agreement signed between China and Pakistan in February 2025, marking the first time China has selected and trained astronauts for foreign countries and jointly carried out space station missions, and is also an important step in the international operation of the Chinese space station.
The two astronauts will receive systematic training, including in-cabin operations, emergency response, Chinese communication, and joint experiments, and will be trained entirely according to Chinese astronaut standards.
This is not only a milestone event in China-Pakistan space cooperation, but also signifies that the Chinese space station is officially open to the world, laying the foundation for more countries to participate in space station cooperation and carry out space science research in the future.