Pakistan committed to send its first astronaut by 2022: Fawad

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Science and Technology Chaudhry Fawad Hussain on Sunday said Pakistan is committed to send its first astronaut to space by 2022. China would collaborate with Pakistan in its space mission, he said during an interview, adding the selection process for the astronaut would start in 2020.He revealed that initially, 50 individuals would be selected after which the list will be shortened to 25 in 2022. However, he said further that out of them only one would be sent to space.The Pakistan Air Force, he said, would play an important role in the astronaut's selection.To a question, the minister said the debris of India's first space mission namely 'Shakti', which had failed, was even posing dangers to the space missions of other countries.He said the collaboration of Pakistan and India in the fields of science and technology could prove fruitful for the region.Fawad said Pakistan was the second in Asia after the then Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), which had sent its rocket into the space in 1963. The Pakistan Space Science Education Center was playing an important role for the promotion of space sciences in the country, he added.