Pakistan's Ambassador to China Khalil Hashmi on May 3 said that launch of Pakistan's historic lunar mission (ICUBE-Q) on board China's Chang'e-6 lunar was a good example of China-Pakistan bilateral cooperation in space exploration and research.  

Pakistan's lunar mission (ICUBE-Q) was launched on board China's Chang'e-6 from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in south China's Hainan province. 

While congratulating the China National Space Agency, SUPARCO and everyone involved in making this happen, the ambassador said that it signified yet another milestone and he looked forward to many more such milestones. Ambassador Hashmi said that it was an important day for China because launch of Chang'e-6 demonstrated an important landmark in the country's space exploration journey. 

After completion, the mission would bring back samples from far side of the moon, he added. 

Terming the launch an important day for Pakistan as well, he said that it was an excellent example of international cooperation where countries and organizations were coming together with China. 

"The European Space Agency, France, Italy and Pakistan's SUPARCO have joined hands and are going on this exploration together," he added. 

About further cooperation between Pakistan and China in space, he said that it was an excellent example of international cooperation as well as absolute example of China-Pakistan collaboration for peaceful purposes in the space. Ambassador Hashmi pointed out that Pakistan and China had been cooperating in the past. "We have launched satellites before for communications and are working with China to launch another satellite," he added.  

He said that the ICUBE-Q was designed for research and exploration. Incidentally, the satellite was developed jointly by the Shanghai Jiaotong University and Pakistan Institute of Space Technology. "Pakistan and China are working closely on unmanned flight of spacecraft and certainly we will look forward to many more such examples in the future," he said. 

Responding to a question about the impact of cooperation in space exploration on China-Pakistan all-weather friendship, he said that the two countries were old friends, very unique friends, and they had been cooperating on a number of matters such as diplomatic, multilateral cooperation, bilateral economic and defense and space. 

"So, it's a very wide ranging partnership and space cooperation is an important facet of this partnership. We see it as a platform to promote development objectives, and we are grateful to the government of China, the China National Space Agency providing this opportunity to launch the ICUBE-Q." 

Sharing his personal feelings about the launch, the ambassador said that he was very excited to witness the launch because it was his first time that he was going to witness a lunar mission. Earlier, Ambassador Hashmi attended Chang'e-6 International Payloads Workshop held in Haikou, Hainan and hosted by China National Space Administration Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering Center. 

The workshop was addressed by experts from Pakistan, China, France and Italy. 

He also interacted with Pakistani and international delegates as well as media on the significance of today's milestone for Pakistan and China and other countries and organizations.