China to Send Pakistani Astronaut as First Foreign Guest to Tiangong Space Station

Through space cooperation with Pakistan, China will deliver its first international astronaut to the Tiangong space station. China and Pakistan launched this major project through an agreement signed on Friday at an event Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif attended in Islamabad. 

The agreement lets Pakistani teams pick astronauts who will train first in China then join the crew of China’s space station even though the station orbits only 400 kilometers above Earth.

China advances its space programs by setting a target to take astronauts to the moon by 2030 and build lunar bases. For four years the functional Tiangong space station creates China’s standalone option beyond its exclusion from the International Space Station by international space programs who fear military activities within China’s space systems. Space exploration has become a new front in U.S.-China competition and people worldwide watch the robotic arms focused on space manipulation at the station.