The Chinese Space Station International Crews

The Chinese Space Station International Crews

© First published 27 May 2023; Updated 27 May 2023;

1. Table of Contents

1. Table of Contents

2. Introduction

3. International crews

3.1. Pakistan

3.2. Europe

3.3. Gulf Cooperation Council

3.4. Iran

3.5. ASEAN

3.6. Other nations of the Global South

2. Introduction

Interkosmos was a Soviet space program, designed to help the Soviet Union's allies with crewed and uncrewed space missions from 1967 until 1994.

Today, following the completion of the Chinese Space Station, China has launched its own international crewed space program, and not limited to the members of the China-lead Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization (APSCO).

3. International crews

3.1. Pakistan

Following the first Chinese Shenzhou-5 manned space mission in October 2003, India has tried its best to catch up with the Northern superpower but with little success so far.

Indeed, a cautious forecast would see the first Indian astronaut launched into orbit only by 2025 at the earliest, or 22 years after China, and more likely by 2030.

Nonetheless, having definitively lost the space race to China, India was since then only trying to control further damage to its status of great power by making sure to secure its most coveted 4th place as a manned space faring power.

With the entry in 2009 of the Iranian challenger, India has followed closely the pace dictated by its Western great power.

While Iranian astronauts have missed the initial target of 2016, this allowed India to postpone its own program.

But in turn, in anticipation of the the public anger and rage caused by a first Indian manned space mission, Pakistan as a member of the APSCO, would seek the help of its Northern Chinese superpower to also place a man into orbit.


The initial date for the space mission was then set to 2022, by the completion of the Chinese Space Station Phase I with the first 3 main orbital modules:


Following the 2019 COVID-19 world pandemic, all contenders were forced to delay their plans:


Conclusion, at the current rate, the first visit of a Pakistani astronaut to the CSS can be expected by 2025 at the earliest, to be synchronized with the first Indian manned orbital mission.

3.2. Europe

China is working towards constructing an International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) in the 2030s, with the Chang’e-7 and Chang’e-8 missions touted as a basic model for the plan.

Further complicating the issue is Russia’s founding participation in the ILRS project. Chinese officials presented opportunities for international participation on Chang’e-7 and other lunar and deep space missions at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Paris last September. The officials did so however without mentioning Russia as a partner, with the country facing international isolation in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine.

In short, Russia has ruined all its chance to even be a competitor in the conquest of the solar system, wasting instead billions of USD in a self-defeating Ukrainian quagmire.

Same goes for the ESA.


Not only ESA has further delayed its Mars exploration program, as the Chinese Mars Rover already broke the one year mark on the Red Planet's surface, but even jeopardized its future manned presence in Earth orbit.

Planning for the manned activities after the deorbiting of the International Space Station, ESA astronauts Samantha Cristoforetti and Matthias Maurer joined 16 Chinese astronauts for training in 2017.

The ultimate goal for ESA was to establish a long term cooperation with China and ESA astronauts to fly on China’s space station.


▲ ESA astronauts Samantha Cristoforetti and Matthias Maurer joined 16 Chinese astronauts earlier August 2017 for nine days of sea survival training off China’s coastal city of Yantai.

Falling victim to the 2022 Ukraine War, ESA has cancelled its manned space program with China.

Meaning, ESA manned space program in Earth LEO could be discontinued 50 years after its first flight.

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3.3. Gulf Cooperation Council

The Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf, also known as the Gulf Cooperation Council, is a regional, intergovernmental, political, and economic union comprising Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.



Both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have experienced astronauts. Adding missions to the CSS could be done in a very short time.

3.4. Iran

The Iran-North Korea space activities are certainly financed by Iran, and obviously outsourced to North Korea. Research is common but the launches take place in North Korea, with Pyongyang taking all the subsequent UNSC condemnations and sanctions, but with ample financial compensations from Tehran.

Origin of Iran's manned space program

Possibly Iran's Suborbital Manned Launcher IRIS (Islamic Republic of Iran Space) made of a single seater capsule atop a Shahab-3 MRBM was first disclosed in 1988, during a defense exhibition.


▲ Iran's first manned suborbital space launcher based on the Shahab-3 disclosed in 1988.

The U.S. technological lineage is obvious, inspired by the single crew Mercury capsule atop a Redstone ballistic missile.


▲ U.S. Mercury Redstone, Iranian Kavoshgar-Safir-1D, North Korean E1-Hwasong-15.

• Iran's Aerospace Organization started a 12-year project in 2009 to send an astronaut into orbit by 2021.

• Then in 2010, the program was accelerated, with a manned capsule to be launched into space by 2016.

• As Iran disclosed its suborbital manned project, the same launcher reappeared for the third time, carrying an E1 spacecraft, in February 2015.


▲ The launcher reappeared for the third time, associated with an E1 spacecraft for a suborbital flight, in February 2015.

A year later an improved model was presented to the media.


▲ Irani E1 suborbital space capsule: on the left, new model from 2016, on the right, old exhibition mockup from 2015.

The manned space program was then postponed after the election of President Rouhani in May 2017, to facilitate the application of the JCPOA.

Simultaneously, we got a rare first glimpse at the North Korean crewed space capsule in May of that year.


▲ North Korean crewed space capsule. May 2017.

But after U.S. President Donald Trump declared his withdrawal from the JCPOA in May 2018, Iran relaunched its manned space program.

Iran's current manned space program

The first step is to master suborbital flight at 120 km altitude, followed by orbital fight at 250-330 km.

It is similar to the U.S. Mercury-Redstone and Mercury-Atlas approach.

Seven Kavoshgar missions (#9 to #15) with the space capsule were in preparation, when fate postponed once more Iran's plan with the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic:


▲ The Kavoshgar 1 to 11 biocapsules missions, as of February 2021.

These suborbital flights would have been succeeded by 4 main incremental steps culminating with the crewed orbital mission.


▲ The 4 main milestones incrementally more complex in preparation for the orbital manned flight.

In an event held in the Iranian capital Tehran, also an APSCO member, on Thursday 20th April 2023 titled the Dialogue with the Heavenly Palace, 400k people in Iran, have watched the live program.

The opportunity to speak online to the Chinese astronauts deployed at the Shenzhou 15 spaceflight can only be interpreted as a preparation for the Persian public to the coming arrival of Iranian astronauts aboard the Chinese Space Station.

This could be done with Iran's 2-modules three-seaters orbital manned spacecraft initially disclosed in 2012 and due to be launched by 2019.

Docking with the Chinese Space Station is possible from the forward docking system.


▲ Iran's three seaters orbital manned spacecraft first disclosed in 2012.

Consequently, the interest for the Chinese Space Station among the Iranian public has since dramatically risen as expected.

Most analysts of the OSINT community consider Iran as more advanced than the DPRK.

It is true that the first SCUD ballistic missiles were imported from Libya, then Syria and finally the DPRK.

All of course with the green light of Moscow, that wanted to play both the Iraqi card (by a massive supply of weapons to Baghdad) and the Iranian card.

But then, after the end of the Imposed War in 1988, boosted by its natural bounty of hydrocarbon, Iran has soon catched up so quickly as to no longer need to import any ballistic missile from the DPRK.

Iran was already test-firing 2 meters diameter solid-fuel Qaem ballistic missile stage by July 2010, the precursor of the Hwasongpho-18 ICBM. This came some 13 years before North Korea!

Video from the live test performed on Ultra-heavy satellite carrier engine in 2010.

The 2011 Syrian Color Revolution was probably the turning point.

A vital client state of Russia, offering naval base, airbase and listening posts, Syria was at the brink of falling into the hands of the NATO-backed insurgents when Iran's backed Lebanese Hizbullah fighters were sent to help the Syrian Army (SAA) repel the takfiri's onslaught.

Thousands more IRGC officers would also lose their lives, until Moscow could secure a victory.

Owing Tehran a debt written in blood, the cash-strapped former superpower could only offer to barter in WMD of the Cold War era.

Soon Iran was producing S-300 and other SAM systems, various Soviet-type radars, Soviet ballistic missiles such as R-27 and R-36, Shkval rocket torpedo, nuclear enrichment centrifuge cascades, testing miniaturized thermonuclear warhead and nuclear EMP warheads (outsourced to North Korea), submarine-launched missiles, naval nuclear reactors, HGV missile, etc.


By now Iran has already developed a 3.5 meter diameter solid-fuel motor for its civilian version Qaem SLV. But again not test-launched for political reason.

Unflown space launchers developed by Iran and waiting to be tested in North Korea are numerous.

Proof, these are always disclosed to the Persian public first, before making their appearance in the North Korean media.

Below a list:

Introduced in 2021, three new GEO space launchers still unheard-of in the DPRK. Possibly of the Safir-3-class family. And one on the right, with cryogenic main engines and 2 side boosters.


Several Safir-3-class family SLVs.

Then we have the heavy launcher with 3 tons payload to GEO. Called the Soroush-2 SLV, it burns cryogenic propellants and has 4 boosters.


Safir-4-class Soroush-2 SLV.

The payload capacity of the launcher has been disclosed in an official website.

Iran's Communication Satellite Developing Plan 2026

• IRANSAT-1 satellite, 1 ton, GEO, Safir-3A SLV
• IRANSAT-2 satellite, 3 tons, GEO, Safir-3C SLV


Iran's Communication Satellite Developing Plan 2026

Another recent example can be seen in other satellite subsystems.

Here a picture of the Iranian Pars-1 satellite flight control system back in 2019. Note the cylindrical reaction wheel or fiber-optic laser gyroscope.


Pars-1 satellite flight control system. December 15, 2019.

And the same hardware presented on 19th April 2023 in North Korea:


Three of those circular avionics boxes appear to be reaction wheels or fiber-optic laser gyros.

With a 3 tons payload GEO capability, the Soroush-2 SLV should be able to place more than 6 tons into LEO (and is even quoted at 21 tons for a 200 km LEO).


Soroush-2 space launcher rated at 21 tons payload capacity LEO.

It shares the same design as the Chinese Long-March 2F (CZ-2F) and therefore is expected to launch the Iranian multi-crew manned spacecraft.


Manned-rated Soroush-2 space launcher on the right. Mar 10, 2022.

Below an incomplete CGI rendering of some of the launchers to be tested in the future.


Iran's Safir SLV family speculation, as of February 2020.

This Russia-Iranian rapprochement has since been upgraded to a full strategic alliance after the 2022 Ukraine Escalation War.

With Iranian Shahed-136 drones making their debut in the Russian army and SU-35 fighter planes soon to be inducted in the Iranian AF.

It is expected that bilateral cooperation, that is the transfer of Russian military technologies will only accelerate as the war drags on.

The most pressing needs for Iran will be the naval sector including aircraft carrier, cruiser, destroyer, submarine, and aircrafts.

Without forgetting of course the nuclear and space sectors.

3.5. ASEAN

Unlike the Gulf Cooperation Council and Iran who present the obvious advantage of being endowed with natural resources and therefore unlimited petrodollars, it is unknown whether ASEAN nations could join the CSS.

Thailand is known to cooperate with China in Antarctica research, lunar exploration, tokamak fusion reactor and other scientific fields.



A manned space mission would naturally further deepen the mutually beneficial cooperation.

Cambodia could be another partner. While not as advanced as Thailand, this would boost the Kingdom's space science.

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3.6. Other nations of the Global South

It is unknown whether African nations would join the CSS program.

Algeria, Egypt, South Africa while traditionally enjoying friendly relations with China are also leading technological powerhouses of the African continent.

Meanwhile in the western hemisphere, Brazil, Argentina have been involved in developing their own space launchers, or have even sent people aboard the ISS, and could certainly show interest in the CSS program.

Venezuela and Bolivia could also be candidates.

3.7. Israel

Part 1. Israel's manned space activities

• Ilan Ramon (June 20, 1954 – February 1, 2003) was an Israeli fighter pilot and later the first Israeli astronaut. Ramon was a Space Shuttle payload specialist on STS-107, the fatal mission of Columbia, in which he and the six other crew members were killed when the spacecraft disintegrated during re-entry.

Recap of the top 11 space accidents

11. On 24 February 2004, at Satish Dhawan Space Centre in India, after curing process of an experimental solid propellant segment weighing 14.5 tonnes, during removal of bottom plate from casting assembly, propellant within segment caught fire resulting in death of four engineers and two assistants. Three workers escaped the inferno with burn injuries. Cast Cure facility building suffered extensive damage.

10. On 28 January 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster caused by a launch booster failure, resulting in vehicle disintegration was the most devastating death toll to date for a manned spaceflight with 7 astronauts. This also delayed for nearly 3 years all U.S. manned spaceflights.

9. On 12 May 2002, 8 workers repairing the roof of the Baikonur Cosmodrome N-1/Energia vehicle assembly building died when the roof suffered a total structural collapse and crashed 80 meters to the ground. Buran Shuttle was destroyed.

8. On 24 October 1963, on the same day as the Nedelin catastrophe, another catastrophe took place. Due to the evaporation of fuel and a short circuit on a R-9 ICBM, a fire took the lives of 7 or 8 people. Since then, 24 October is considered a "Black Day", and Russia has not launched rockets on that day.

7. On 26 June 1973, a launch explosion of Kosmos-3M rocket killed 9 people at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, USSR.

6. On 18 March 1980, an explosion while fueling up a Vostok-2M rocket killed 48 people at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, USSR.

5. On 15 February 1996, a Long March rocket carrying the Intelsat 708 Satellite veered off course immediately after launch, crashing in the nearby village 22 seconds later, destroying 80 houses. According to official Chinese reports there were 6 fatalities and 57 injuries resulting from the incident, but other accounts estimated 100 fatalities.

4. The Nedelin Disaster was worse with 300 casualties including top rocket scientists, delaying the development of the R-16 ICBM.


3. The Bidganeh arsenal explosion was a large explosion that occurred about 13:30 local time, 12 November 2011 in Iran's Moddares garrison missile base. The facility is also referred to as Shahid Modarres missile base, and the Alghadir missile base. Seventeen members of the Revolutionary Guards were killed in this incident, including Major General Hassan Moqaddam, described as "a key figure in Iran's missile programme".
The consequences have been devastating for Iran, with the space center being totally levelled beyond repair, with the irreparable loss of its Chief designer General Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam, delaying indefinitely the development of the Qaem SLV. Indeed, a decade later, as of 2021, this 3.5 meter diameter rocket seems to be cancelled. The largest solid motor flown to space in 2020, the Salman-1 of 1 meter diameter being even smaller than the 4th stage of the 2011 Qaem SLV. While the older design 1.5 meter diameter Sejil-3 first stage or Zoljanah SLV has not been able to reach the Karman line as of 2021.

2. The Brazilian 22nd August 2003 Alcântara VLS accident during the Brazilian Space Agency's third attempt to launch the VLS-1 rocket, killing 21 people.
The explosion leveled the rocket's launch pad, reducing a 10-story high structure to a pile of twisted metal. But worse, the death of key scientists simply put an end to the Brazilian space effort.

1. The Space Shuttle Columbia disaster was a fatal disaster in the United States space program that occurred on 1st February 2003, when the Space Shuttle Columbia (OV-102) disintegrated as it reentered the atmosphere, killing all seven crew members. The disaster was the second fatal accident in the Space Shuttle program, after the 1986 breakup of Challenger soon after liftoff.
This catastrophe totally discredited the space shuttle as a viable space transportation system, ending with its final flight on July 2011.
Leaving the U.S. without any manned space launcher for a decade, until the advent of the SpaceX Crew Dragon on 16 November 2020, but with a much decreased cargo capacity, compared to the space shuttle.

▲ The Columbia Disaster Was Worse Than You Thought•Apr 27, 2020

But, what was even worse if one consider that military or civilian casualties covered by state secrecy inflict lesser loss of international prestige, was the death of one's first ever astronaut televised live worldwide.
Ilan Ramon, a colonel in the Israeli Air Force was the first Israeli astronaut, and was killed in the re-entry accident with all the six other crew members.
With Ilan Ramon's death, Israel is to this day, the only nation in the world among the 44 countries that have flown in space, to have lost its first ever astronaut during a maiden spaceflight.


▲ With Ilan Ramon's death, Israel is to this day, the only nation in the world to have lost its first ever astronaut during a maiden spaceflight.

• Eytan Meir Stibbe is an Israeli former fighter pilot, businessman and commercial astronaut.

In November 2020 he paid Axiom Space to become a space tourist on a ten day mission to the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft on Axiom Mission 1, a private crewed orbital spaceflight. The stay was extended to 17 days.

Stibbe is the 583rd space traveler in the world. He became the second Israeli in space.

Part 2. Israeli-Chinese cooperation

The interest for the Chinese Space Station among the Middle Eastern public has since dramatically risen as expected.

After Iranian astrophotographers, Israeli amateurs have as well recently captured for the first time ever the Chinese Space Station in maximum configuration, made of 3 modules plus 3 spacecrafts (Shenzhou-15, Shenzhou-16, Tianzhou-6), and 6 taikonauts onboard.


Could this hint at an Israeli astronaut visiting the Chinese Space Station in the near future?

Most likely because the only other alternative would be the Indian Space Station.

While diplomatic relations and military cooperations between the 2 West Asian states have flourished over the years, this option would mean a crewed space mission only sometimes after 2050 at the earliest.