Pakistani astronaut set to become 1st international visitor to China's Tiangong space station this month

space.com Nov 13, 2026

Pakistani astronaut set to become 1st international visitor to China’s Tiangong space station this month

Curated by Shubham · TechCapsules · Nov 13, 2026

AI-summarised brief · reviewed before publication

A Pakistani astronaut will launch aboard China’s Shenzhou 24, becoming the first foreign crew member on the Tiangong space station. The mission follows a February 2025 agreement between China and Pakistan and a selection of two candidates, Muhammad Zeeshan Ali and Khurram Daud, from a pool of about 20 finalists. The astronaut will serve as a payload specialist for roughly a week, conducting experiments from four selected research payloads, and will return on the departing Shenzhou 23 vehicle. The launch is slated for late November from Jiuquan, using a Long March 2F rocket.

💡 Why It Matters

· This marks the first joint human‑spaceflight between China and a foreign nation, expanding international collaboration beyond satellite launches and setting a precedent for future multinational crewed missions.

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‘Don’t panic’: SpaceX pens familiar message on Starship ahead of historic double-catch…

SpaceX is set to launch the 15th Starship test flight on Nov. 13, featuring the first simultaneous “chopsticks” catch of both its Super Heavy booster and the upper stage, Ship 42. The vehicle, rolled out to Starbase on Nov. 12, bears the phrase “Don’t panic,” a nod to Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Musk’s long‑standing fandom. After liftoff, Super Heavy is slated to return to the launch pad about 6.5 minutes later, while Ship 42 will deploy 26 next‑generation Starlink V3 satellites before orbiting Earth 14 times and attempting its own tower catch on Nov. 14. If either stage encounters issues, the plan calls for a Pacific splashdown near Hawaii or Chile. Successful dual recovery would mark a milestone in SpaceX’s goal of 10,000 annual Starship flights by 2030.

💡 Demonstrating a fully reusable two‑stage recovery could slash turnaround time and costs, accelerating SpaceX’s push toward near‑daily launch cadence.

space.com · Nov 13

Powerful Vulcan Centaur rocket launching for 1st time in 9 months today:…

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💡 The flight validates ULA’s corrective measures, restoring confidence in Vulcan for both commercial and defense customers and accelerating Amazon’s push to rival Starlink’s global internet coverage.

teslarati.com · Nov 13

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💡 The merger would create the world’s largest tech conglomerate, forcing regulators to confront unprecedented cross‑border and defense‑industry entanglements.

space.com · Nov 13

Watch SpaceX attempt a historic Starship launch and double-catch landing today (Nov.…

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spacenews.com · Nov 13

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💡 By securing its own launch capability, AST aims to sidestep a constrained market and guarantee the cadence needed for its satellite constellation. This vertical integration could reshape how emerging space firms address launch bottlenecks.

space.com · Nov 12

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