The Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (Urdu: خلائ و بالائ فضائ تحقیقاتی ماموریہ; better known as SUPARCO) is an executive agency of the Government of Pakistan, responsible for the nation's public and civil space programme and aeronautics and aerospace research. It was established in its modern form in 1961 by an executive order of President Field Marshal Muhammad Ayub Khan on the advice of its founding director, Abdus Salam. The agency is part of Pakistan Defence Forces's Strategic Plans Division (SPD) under the current control of Pakistan Army. The SPD is headed by the Army's retired three star general Lieutenant-General Khalid Kadwai. SPD headquarters are located at the Pakistan Air Force controlled Chaklala Cantonment.

The executive figure of the agency is Major-General Ahmed Bilal who is heading the agency as the current chairman of SUPARCO, while he is also serving his tenure as Colonel Commandant of Pakistan Army Corps of Signals Engineering.

The research in space sciences and aeronautical development was insued by the physicists at the Punjab University's Physics Department in 1957, following the successful launch of Soviet Union's Sputnik 1 However, due to the political instability, the programme was not undertaken seriously by the Government of Pakistan. Nobel Laureate Abdus Salam had played a major and influential role in the development of Pakistan's science policy. It was Salam's advice to the President, Field Marshal Ayub Khan, to establish a National Space Agency of Pakistan, Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) on September 16, 1961. It was decided to set up a ےommittee dealing with space sciences, consequently, a Space Sciences Research Wing of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC). It was established through an Executive Order of then President of Pakistan Field Marshal Ayub Khan which was addressed to I. H. Usmani, the Chairman of PAEC. The program of rocket test firings was entrusted to the Chairman of PAEC.