Shenzhou-24 Pakistani Astronaut: First Foreign Visitor to Tiangong

For the first time since it opened, China's Tiangong space station is about to host someone who is not a Chinese citizen. On Saturday 7 November 2026 the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said that an astronaut from Pakistan will fly on the Shenzhou-24 mission as a payload specialist. The visitor will spend a short time in orbit and then come home on a different spacecraft, Shenzhou-23, which is already docked at the station.

The Shenzhou-24 Pakistani astronaut will be the first person from Pakistan to reach orbit, and the first international crew member in the history of China's human spaceflight programme. Two things are still missing from the announcement: the name of the person who will fly, and an official launch date. Here is what is confirmed, what is only expected, and how the unusual "up on one ship, down on another" plan works.

What China actually announced

The statement from the China Manned Space Agency, carried by Xinhua and the state broadcaster CCTV, was short. It confirmed three points: a Pakistani astronaut will join the Shenzhou-24 crewed flight, the role will be payload specialist, and the return to Earth will be on board Shenzhou-23 after a short on-orbit stay. It did not say how many days "short" means, and it did not give a launch date. The announcement follows a plan the agency first set out in February 2026, when it said that one Shenzhou-23 crew member would stay in orbit for a full year and that a Pakistani astronaut would fly a short-duration mission.

The flight is the result of an astronaut cooperation agreement that China's human spaceflight office and Pakistan's space agency, the Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO), signed in February 2025. Under that deal China agreed to select and train Pakistani candidates and to fly one of them to its station.

Who could fly: two pilots, one seat

Selection ran in three stages, which CMSA says mirrored the way it picks its own astronauts: a preliminary screening, a second round and a final assessment. SUPARCO finished the second round in early February 2026. On 22 April 2026 Chinese state media named the two finalists: Muhammad Zeeshan Ali and Khurram Daud. Both are pilots, and both have since spent months at the Astronaut Centre of China in Beijing, training alongside Chinese crews in everything from spacecraft systems to life in weightlessness.

Only one of them will launch. The other will serve as the backup and would fly only if the prime candidate could not. China has not said who is first in line, and no reliable report has named a favourite. If it follows its usual routine, CMSA will reveal the full Shenzhou-24 crew at a press conference at the launch site the day before liftoff, as it did for Shenzhou-23 on 23 May 2026. Any article that claims to know the name before then is guessing.

When is the Shenzhou-24 launch?

Launch trackers list Shenzhou-24 for no earlier than 25 November 2026, on a Long March 2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in north-west China. That date matches one given publicly by Pakistan's planning minister, Ahsan Iqbal, in October. China itself has not confirmed it, so treat 25 November as a target rather than a fixed date. You can follow any changes on our China launch schedule and the wider rocket launch schedule, which both update as new dates are filed.

Recent Shenzhou flights have used a fast rendezvous profile. Shenzhou-23 lifted off at 15:08 UTC on 24 May 2026 and docked with Tiangong roughly three and a half hours later. If Shenzhou-24 does the same, the Pakistani astronaut could be floating into the station on launch day itself.

Up on one spacecraft, home on another

The return plan is the most interesting part of the mission. A Shenzhou capsule has three seats, and every seat on the way down has to belong to someone. The Shenzhou-23 crew, who arrived on 24 May 2026, are commander Zhu Yangzhu, pilot Zhang Zhiyuan and payload specialist Li Jiaying, the first astronaut from Hong Kong. One of those three is due to stay aboard Tiangong for about a year, the longest single stay China has attempted. CMSA has said it will pick that person based on how the mission and the crew's health progress.

That year-long stay is what frees a seat. When Shenzhou-23 undocks, it will carry two of its original crew plus the Pakistani visitor back to the Dongfeng landing site in Inner Mongolia. The two Chinese astronauts who arrive on Shenzhou-24 stay behind with the year-long crew member, so the station keeps a crew of three. By 25 November the Shenzhou-23 crew will have been in orbit for 185 days.

China has not said how long the overlap will last. Several reports describe a visit of about a week, which fits the length of previous Shenzhou handovers, but CMSA's own wording is only "short-term". During that period six people will be aboard a station built for three, which is normal for a crew handover on Tiangong.

What a payload specialist does

A payload specialist does not fly the spacecraft. Commanders and pilots handle the Shenzhou capsule and the station's systems, while the payload specialist is there for the science. CMSA has said that the Pakistani astronaut will take part in routine crew duties and will also carry out scientific experiments for Pakistan in microgravity. The specific experiments have not been published. Li Jiaying, currently aboard as part of Shenzhou-23, holds the same title, so the visitor will be working next to someone who knows the role from the inside.

Tiangong itself is easy to follow from the ground. It orbits roughly 380 to 400 km up at an inclination of about 41.5°, so it passes over much of Asia, Africa, southern Europe, Australia and the Americas, but never the far north. Our live Tiangong tracker shows where it is right now and when it next crosses your sky, and the guide to ISS vs Tiangong explains how the two stations differ in size, orbit and visibility.

A first for Tiangong, a familiar path for first-time nations

The International Space Station has welcomed astronauts from more than 20 countries. Tiangong, which China finished assembling in 2022, has so far flown only Chinese crews. This mission changes that, and Chinese officials have repeatedly described the station as open to international partners.

For Pakistan, reaching orbit on a partner's spacecraft follows a well-worn route. Many countries sent their first astronaut on someone else's rocket: Vietnam's Pham Tuan flew on a Soviet Soyuz in 1980, India's Rakesh Sharma in 1984, and the United Arab Emirates' Hazza Al Mansouri reached the ISS on a Russian Soyuz in 2019. Pakistan's space links with China also go back years. A small Pakistani lunar satellite, ICUBE-Q, travelled to the Moon on China's Chang'e-6 mission in 2024.

Why this matters for China's bigger plans

The Pakistani flight sits inside a busy schedule. The year-long stay will give Chinese doctors their first full year of data on how one of their astronauts copes with long-term weightlessness, which matters for the country's goal of landing astronauts on the Moon before 2030. We covered that plan in our report on China's crewed Moon landing timeline. Hosting a foreign crew member also tests the training, language and medical procedures China will need if it brings in more international partners in future.

You can watch the Shenzhou-24 Pakistani astronaut story play out without leaving home. The launch will appear in our list of rocket launches this week once the date firms up, and our space events calendar keeps the key dates in one place.

What to watch for next

The next milestones are easy to list. First, CMSA's pre-launch press conference, which should name the Pakistani astronaut and the two Chinese crew members flying with him. Second, the launch and docking, expected on the same day. Third, a short stay of crew handover work and experiments, followed by the undocking and landing of Shenzhou-23 with the visitor on board. Finally, an announcement of which Shenzhou-23 astronaut stays on for the year.

We will update this story when China confirms the date and the name. Until then, the facts are simple: a seat is set aside, two trained pilots are ready, and late November is the target for the first foreign visit to China's space station.