To infinity and beyond

To infinity and beyond

Sometime in the near future, an astronaut from Pakistan will float through a hatch into China’s space station and become, in that small weightless moment, the first foreign national to board Tiangong. He will have trained for months in a language that is not his own, in a country with its own complicated reasons for wanting him there. And back home, a country that has been to space only once before will watch on screens, caught between pride, su…