Pak to send its first person to space in 2022

Islamabad: Pakistan will send its first person to space in 2022, said Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry on Thursday.

“Proud to announce that selection process for the first Pakistani to be sent to Space shall begin from Feb 2020, fifty people will be shortlisted — list will then come down to 25 and in 2022 we will send our first person to space, this will be the biggest space event of our history,” tweeted Chaudhry.

Chaudhry told Dawn that the air force will be the overseer of the selection process. To facilitate the launching of the vehicle, Pakistan has signed an agreement with China as it does not have its own satellite launching facility.

Until now Pakistan has launched two satellites into orbit with the help of Chinese launch vehicle.