The press conference on Shenzhou 20 manned flight mission was held today (April 23) at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center.
The spokesperson introduced that after China and Pakistan signed the cooperation agreement at the end of February this year, the selection of Pakistani astronauts is currently underway. Like the selection of Chinese astronauts, this work is divided into three stages: primary election, re-selection and final selection. Among them, the primary election work will be implemented in Pakistan, and the re-elected and final election work will be implemented in China. In the end, two Pakistani astronauts will be selected to come to China to participate in training. According to the actual progress of flight mission planning and cooperation of China's space station, a Pakistani astronaut will participate in a joint flight as a payload expert. During the period in orbit, in addition to completing the daily work of the crew, he will also undertake the operation of Pakistani scientific experiments. At the same time, we are consulting with relevant countries on their astronauts' participation in China's space station flights, and will release relevant progress information in a timely manner in the future.
(CCTV reporter Huang Xianwen and Wang Gang)
