ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and China have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the former’s first lunar rover to be included in Beijing’s Chang’E 8 mission, the national space agency in Islamabad said.
The Chang’E 8 mission is a robotic exploration of the lunar south pole expected to launch in 2028. Last year, the Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO), Pakistan’s space program, said its rover would land on the lunar south pole in 2028 as part of the Chang’ E 8 mission but a formal agreement has now been signed during a visit by President Asif Ali Zardari to China this week.
“Pakistan has made a significant leap in deep space exploration with the signing of a historic MoU between SUPARCO and the China National Space Administration,” the Pakistani agency said in a press release on Thursday.
Pakistan’s participation in the mission was a “milestone” in the country’s space program and its contribution to the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) initiative, the statement added.
“SUPARCO’s lunar rover will be deployed at the Moon’s south pole,” it said. “The rover will carry advanced scientific payloads developed by SUPARCO and an internationally designed scientific payload created through collaboration between Chinese and European scientists.”
The combined effort of Pakistan and China will enhance the mission’s capability to conduct an in-depth analysis of the lunar surface, the statement said, with Pakistani scientists able to operate the rover from Earth, map the lunar surface, study lunar soil composition, radiation levels and plasma properties and test new technologies for sustainable human presence.
Last May, Pakistan launched its first lunar satellite aboard China’s Chang’e-6 probe, which successful landed on the moon’s South Pole-Aitken Basin, an impact crater on the side of the Moon that always faces away from Earth. The mission returned to earth in June, making China the first to bring back samples from the moon’s far side.
Pakistan, China sign agreement for lunar mission in 2028
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Pakistan, China sign agreement for lunar mission in 2028
- Pakistan’s first lunar rover will be part of China’s Chang’E 8 robotic exploration of the lunar south pole
- Last May, Pakistan launched its first lunar satellite aboard China’s Chang’e-6 probe of far side of the moon
Imran Khan not a ‘national security threat,’ ex-PM’s party responds to Pakistan military
- Pakistan’s military spokesperson on Friday described Khan’s anti-army narrative as a “national security threat”
- PTI Chairman Gohar Ali Khan says words used by military spokesperson for Khan were “not appropriate”
ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party on Saturday responded to allegations by Pakistan military spokesperson Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry from a day earlier, saying that he was not a “national security threat.”
Chaudhry, who heads the military’s media wing as director general of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), spoke to journalists on Friday, in which he referred to Khan as a “mentally ill” person several times during the press interaction. Chaudhry described Khan’s anti-army narrative as a “national security threat.”
The military spokesperson was responding to Khan’s social media post this week in which he accused Chief of Defense Forces Field Marshal Asim Munir of being responsible for “the complete collapse of the constitution and rule of law in Pakistan.”
“The people of Pakistan stand with Imran Khan, they stand with PTI,” the party’s secretary-general, Salman Akram Raja, told reporters during a news conference.
“Imran Khan is not a national security threat. Imran Khan has kept the people of this country united.”
Raja said there were several narratives in the country, including those that created tensions along ethnic and sectarian lines, but Khan had rejected all of them and stood with one that the people of Pakistan supported.
PTI Chairman Gohar Ali Khan, flanked by Raja, criticized the military spokesperson as well, saying his press talk on Thursday had “severely disappointed” him.
“The words that were used [by the military spokesperson] were not appropriate,” Gohar said. “Those words were wrong.”
‘NATURAL OUTCOME’
Speaking to reporters earlier on Saturday, Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif defended the military spokesperson’s remarks against Khan.
“When this kind of language is used for individuals as well as for institutions, then a reaction is a natural outcome,” he said.
“The same thing is happening on the Twitter accounts being run in his [Khan’s] name. If the DG ISPR has given any reaction to it, then I believe it was a very measured reaction.”
Khan, who was ousted after a parliamentary vote of confidence in April 2022, blames the country’s powerful military for removing him from power by colluding with his political opponents. Both deny the allegations.
The former prime minister, who has been in prison since August 2023 on a slew of charges he says are politically motivated, also alleges his party was denied victory by the army and his political rivals in the 2024 general election through rigging.
The army and the government both deny his allegations.
