Pakistan plans to send one citizen to space by 2022
What's the story
A minister of Pakistan's government has given the country's citizens a reason to rejoice. On Thursday, Fawad Chaudhry, the country's minister for Science and Technology, said Pakistan will send its first citizen to space by 2022. In a tweet, Chaudhry said the selection process for the "biggest space event of our history" will begin in February 2020. Here are more details.
Information
50 people will be selected in first round, revealed Chaudhry
Giving more details about the plan, Chaudhry said 50 people will be shortlisted from the entries which they will receive. The list will then be brought down to 25, and out of them, one person will be selected for this expedition.
Program
Reportedly, Pakistan will take China's help in this program
Last year, Chaudhry had announced that Pakistan plans to send one citizen to space. The ambitious program will be completed with assistance from the Chinese government, he had said at the time. As soon as he put out the tweet, several Pakistanis congratulated Chaudhry and expressed interest in the program. Replying to Chaudhry's tweet, actor Fakhr-e-Alam asked where can he find the details.
Twitter Post
The tweet got plenty of reactions
Wow sounds great. And tempting. Me wants to apply 😍
— Marvi Sirmed (@marvisirmed) July 25, 2019
Details
Earlier as well, Pakistan took China's help to launch satellites
Earlier, Pakistan launched two indigenously built satellites into Earth's orbit using China's launch vehicle, Long March (LM-2C). The satellites were launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center situated in Gobi desert, China. While one of the satellites was a PRSS1, a remote sensing satellite, the other one was PAK-TES-1A. Reportedly, the second satellite was developed by the Space and Upper Atmospheric Research Commission (SUPARCO).