Chinese spacecraft carrying Pakistan’s national flag returns from its space journey

ISLAMABAD: In another significant milestone of Pakistan-China bilateral space cooperation, a national flag of Pakistan, sent to outer space onboard ‘Tian’he’ on May 5, returned back on Friday.

A ceremony was held today at the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) for the “hatch opening” of Tian’he spacecraft module, which re-entered Earth on May 8, 2020.

“The Embassy of Pakistan in China had handed over the national flag of Pakistan for the space voyage to CMSA in Beijing on 11 February 2020. In today’s ceremony, Mr Hao Chun, Director General CMSA, handed back the flag to Ambassador Naghmana A. Hashmi, Ambassador of Pakistan to China,” read the official communique.

In line with China’s endeavors to develop a new generation space station by China Manned Space Agency (CMSA), the space module was launched into outer space by a Long March 5B rocket.

Speaking on the occasion, Ambassador Naghmana A. Hashmi congratulated CMSA, CAST and other Chinese research institutions for the successful mission of Tian’he.

Recalling excellent bilateral cooperation between the two countries in outer space ventures, Ambassador Hashmi, while referring to launching of PRSS-1 and PakTES-1 satellites in July 2018, said: “The two sides are engaged in regular technology transfer, and exchange of experts and delegations.”

Hoping that Beijing and Islamabad would further build on their cooperation in space exploration, leading to the travel of first Pakistani astronaut to space in 2022, Hashmi maintained that for this purpose, Pakistan and China signed an Agreement for Cooperation in Human Space Flight Activities in April, 2019.