Pakistani astronaut to become Tiangong’s first international visitor

Shenzhou 24’s launching crew will contain three people: the Pakistani payload specialist and two Chinese colleagues. The second Pakistani finalist will serve as backup, while China has yet to name the Chinese crew members publicly.

The two Chinese colleagues will begin a six-month stay at the station, while the visitor will depart much sooner aboard the departing Shenzhou 23 spacecraft. He will return with two Chinese astronauts who will have completed their own six months in orbit.

Pakistan’s space agency, SUPARCO, says the visitor will be responsible for four research payloads, meaning instruments or experiments selected for the flight. Those four were chosen from more than 300 proposals.

How will the crew rotation change?

The modified schedule breaks from China’s usual three-in, three-out rotation for Tiangong. Under that pattern, three residents leave as three replacements arrive; the Pakistani mission alters that sequence.

One of the three Shenzhou 23 astronauts, who reached Tiangong on May 24, will remain aboard for China’s first-ever year-long stay in orbit. The visitor will take that astronaut’s place on Shenzhou 23 for the return to Earth.

The revised sequence resembles a track relay: one runner stays on the course while another takes over the baton. Here, the continuing astronaut retains the station assignment, and the visitor fills the seat on the returning spacecraft.

When will Shenzhou 24 launch?

China has not announced a precise launch date, although the mission is expected to lift off before November ends. The Shenzhou 23 crew, now approaching 180 days in orbit, is nearing the end of its six-month stay.

Shenzhou 24 will launch from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert aboard a Long March 2F rocket. China typically keeps crew identities closely guarded until a press conference one day before launch.

The Long March 2F is expected to roll out to the launch pad about a week before launch.

What does the China-Pakistan partnership include?

Chinese launches have already carried Pakistani satellites, including a lunar cubesat, or small satellite. Pakistan has also built a rover, a small wheeled vehicle, for the planned Chang’e-8 lunar landing mission.

These projects already connect the two countries through launch services and lunar hardware; the astronaut flight would add a joint human-spaceflight mission to that record.

If the schedule holds, Shenzhou 24 will carry the first foreigner to Tiangong before the end of November and establish a new visiting-crew arrangement for China’s station.