BEIJING—Islamabad friendship entered a new phase when two Pakistani astronauts, Muhammad Zeeshan Ali and Khurram Daud, were selected for a space mission and will go to China for training at the Astronaut Centre of China in Beijing after comprehensive medical, psychological and aptitude tests under international criteria.

After completion of training, either of them will undertake spaceflight this year, becoming the first-ever foreign astronaut to board a Chinese spacecraft and conduct scientific experiments in space under the bilateral “Astronaut Cooperation Agreement” signed in Islamabad last year. This marks a watershed in Pakistan’s manned space mission as Pakistan joins a small group of nations engaged in human spaceflight. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif thanked China, calling it possible due to the “ironclad China-Pakistan brotherhood.”

Pakistan started focusing on space exploration after the (former) Soviet Union sent its first satellite, Sputnik-1 in 1957. A committee was set up for this purpose in 1961 on the advice of a prominent scientist and the first Pakistani Noble Prize Winner, Dr. Abdus Salam. The committee was then named as Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO). Pakistan sent its first rocket, Rehbar-1 in the upper........

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