The Pulse | Security | South Asia

Can Pakistan Make Its Space Program Great Again?

None of Pakistan’s recent space achievements would be possible without Chinese help. Is Pakistan building a space program or just leasing one?

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif (center) applauds the signing of a cooperation agreement that will send a Pakistani astronaut to China’s space station, Feb. 28, 2025.

Pakistan is quietly picking up the pace in its spacefaring ambitions. On April 22, two Pakistani men – Muhammad Zeeshan Ali and Khurram Daud, both pilots with the Pakistan Air Force – were selected to undergo training in Beijing in a milestone in their country’s scientific history. Both aspiring astronauts are in deep training at China’s Astronaut Center; one of them will be the first Pakistani astronaut in space on an official mission, and the first foreign national to board China’s Tiangong Space Station. The Tiangong is China’s answer to the International Space Station after the United States blocked China from becoming a part of the ISS. 

The Pakistani astronaut will not be a symbolic stowaway, but rather an integral part of the team on the Tiangong as a working scientist expected to work on microgravity experiments, use specialized equipment, and respond to emergencies in orbit. Departure for the mission is scheduled to take place in late 2026.

Back home, Pakistan is facing skyrocketing inflation, soaring energy prices and bills, insurgencies in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and border clashes with India and Afghanistan. Back in 2023, the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index downgraded Pakistan to the status of an authoritarian regime due to the encroaching powers of the Pakistan Army in politics. 

Among all this turmoil, Pakistan is reaching for the stars. In addition to the upcoming mission that will send a Pakistani to China’s space station, Pakistan’s space agency – the Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) – has been quietly launching satellites at an unprecedented pace: five indigenous satellites in the last 16 months. 

Pakistan is rarely associated with technological ambition. SUPARCO has remained largely underfunded and stagnant for more than two decades, constantly being overshadowed by its neighbors, especially the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). That makes recent developments all the more surprising. 

The first satellite launch was in January 2025 when SUPARCO launched PRSC-EO1, Pakistan’s first indigenously built electro-optical Earth observation satellite. In February 2026, a second electro-optical satellite, EO-2, was launched. Both took off from China’s Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. 

Then in April 2026, SUPARCO launched the EO-3, the most advanced of the three, from the Taijuan Satellite Launch Center. The EO-3 carries an AI-powered onboard computer that can process imagery in real time instead of the older model of beaming raw data to a ground station. The EO-3 satellite also has a Multi-Geometry Imaging Module for enhanced accuracy and an advanced energy storage system, both of which were made in-house by SUPARCO. 

In between these three observation satellites, Pakistan also launched its first hyperspectral satellite, called the HS-1, in October 2025. The HS-1 is capable of analyzing hundreds of light bands to detect mineral deposits, crop growth, and environmental shifts caused by climate change with precision.

In July 2025, the KS-1 was launched from the Xichang Satellite Center. The KS-1 is a high-resolution remote sensing satellite capable of round-the-clock imaging. With these five launches, Pakistan now has seven satellites in orbit, which seemed far-fetched just a decade ago. 

Importantly, none of Pakistan’s recent space achievements would be possible without........

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