Pakistan committed to send its first astronaut to space by 2022: Fawad

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Science and Technology Chaudhry Fawad Hussain Sunday said Pakistan was committed to send its first astronaut to space by 2022.

China would collaborate with Pakistan in its space mission, he said, adding the selection process for the astronaut would start in 2020, state-owned wire service quoted him as saying during an interview to a private news channel.

Initially, 50 persons would be selected and then the list would come down to 25 in 2022, out of them only one would be sent to space, he said.

The Pakistani Air Force, he said, would play an important role in the astronaut’s selection.

To a question, the minister said the debris of India’s first space mission namely ‘Shakti’, which had failed, was even posing dangers to the space missions of other countries.

Earlier, on July 25, the minister had announced that Pakistan would send its first citizen into space by 2022 following a selection process.

“Proud to announce that selection process for the first Pakistani to be sent to Space shall begin from Feb 2020,” he tweeted.

In the selection process, “Fifty people will be shortlisted,” and the list will then further come down to 25 persons, said the minister.

“In 2022 we will send our first person to space, this will be the biggest space event of our history,” Chaudhry said.