A Pakistani astronaut will become the first foreigner aboard the Chinese space station Tiangong, while Beijing intensifies space diplomacy amid a growing battle with the United States by supremacy in orbit. The mission of the Pakistani astronaut – who has not yet been selected – narrows the spaces already narrow between the two countries.
Last year, Pakistan sent a satellite to the moon aboard the Chinese Lunar Explorer, along with useful loads from the European Space Agency, France and Italy, according to Chinese state media.
Tiangong is one of two spacecraft stations currently in operation, next to the International Space Station, launched in 1998. Since starting operating in 2021, he has received only Chinese astronauts. The mission is “a significant step in the internationalization of the Chinese space station,” said Quentin Parker, astrophysicist and professor at the University of Hong Kong.
“When you internationalize things correctly, it builds something larger than the sum of the parts, and this is true at the internationalization of the space station,” he said.
During a press conference on Wednesday (23), China’s manned space agency announced that the selected astronaut will be a payload specialist, dealing with daily tasks during the mission, as well as scientific experiments for Pakistan.
AMJAD Ali, deputy director of the Pakistani Suparco space agency, praised the news as a milestone for the South Asian nation, whose government is renewing interest in its space program of over 60 years.
“It is very important for Pakistan, being the first foreign country whose astronauts are entertained by China and taken by the Chinese mission,” he told Reuters news agency on Wednesday.
There he said that Pakistan space chiefs will compile a list of five to 10 mission candidates next month, for China then to reduce to two. The pair will then go through training for six months to a year, with one eventually being sent to space as early as October next year, while the other acts as a reserve, said there.
Strategic partnership
The growing spatial ties of the two countries coincide with the growing economic collaboration and trade on Earth. Under the Beijing China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, an important project within the belt and route initiative, China has invested in infrastructure in the north and southern Pakistan, including a deep water port in the city of Gwadar, in the southwest of the country, as well as multiple technological projects between the two countries.
An agreement signed in February between the two countries on space cooperation was a precursor, announced by the mission. On Tuesday (22), a delegation from the Chinese space technology company Galaxy Space met with the Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, according to a statement from the Sharif Office.
The delegation expressed a “great interest in investing in Pakistan’s space technology industry and joint ventures with Pakistani space technology institutions and private telecommunications companies,” the statement said. Sharif, calling China “friend and most reliable strategic partner” from his country, said Pakistan was “seeking to increase cooperation with China in the areas of space technology, space satellites and satellite internet”.
Amer Gilani, who supervises cooperation on manned space flights on the Supparco, told the CNN That the experiments to be conducted during the planned mission were still being selected, but will have “high scientific, industrial and social impact.”
China has quickly advanced in its space power in recent decades through ambitious lunar exploration programs and deep space, as well as the expansion of its space station.
This Thursday (24), another manned mission will be launched from the Jiuquan Satellites Launch Center in Northwest China, taking three astronauts to Tiangong.
The Shenzhou-20 crew was a program to take off at 6:17 am (Brasília time), the state media said. It will be the ninth manned mission on the way to the Chinese space station since it was fully assembled in 2022.
The main objective of the mission is to complete orbit rotation with the Shenzhou-19 crew, which is scheduled to return to Earth on April 29, authorities from China’s manned space agency said at a press conference.
As long as they are in space, astronauts will conduct scientific and application experiments, will install a protection device against spatial debris, as well as payload and extraveicular equipment, and perform recovery tasks according to the agency. The mission will also transport small animals and organisms to life science experiments at the space station. Among them will be rustle fish, planaries and Streptomyces bacteria.
China has signed almost 200 intergovernmental spaces for space cooperation with foreign countries and international organizations, covering areas ranging from satellite development and lunar exploration to manned space flights, state media said in December.
China’s space administration has announced that it also approved the loan of lunar samples collected by the Chinese Mission of previous lunar exploration for seven institutions in six countries, including Pakistan.
Parker, from the University of Hong Kong, emphasized the importance of International Space Cooperation: “The current situation in the world is increasingly complex – but it is important that this spirit of reach and collaboration is maintained.”
This content was originally published in Pakistani astronaut will be the 1st foreigner at the Chinese space station on CNN Brazil.
Source: CNN Brasil
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