NASA Hails China Space Travel As 'Unifying Force,' But U.S. Law Bans Alliance

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NASA Hails China Space Travel As 'Unifying Force,' But U.S. Law Bans Alliance
BY TOM O'CONNOR
ON 5/5/21 AT 11:47 AM EDT

china-space-station-rendering.webp

A rendering of China's planned Tiangong (Heavenly Palace) large modular space station is seen as published by the China Manned Space Engineering Office. On April 29, China successfully launched the first and central module to its planned space station, making it currently only the second such operational facility alongside the International Space Station, which is jointly managed by the U.S., Russia, European Union, Canada and Japan.



There's a new major player in the final frontier, but the United States' space agency under President Joe Biden sees an upside to its top competitor's success, even if U.S. scientists remain formally banned from cooperating with their Chinese counterparts.

For decades, the realm of outer space travel was dominated by the U.S. and Russia, a reality set by their Cold War-era space race that ultimately helped fuel historic developments now also being advanced by a range of countries across the globe, including in Europe, India, Israel, Japan and the United Arab Emirates.

No country's rapid rise has grabbed as much global attention, however, as that of China, whose accelerated ascendance into space mirrors its lightning growth back on Earth. Beijing's expanding economic, political and military influence has led to a significant deterioration of its relationship with Washington, which has enjoyed unmatched superpower status since the fall of the Soviet Union.

As China celebrates the landmark launch of the first module to its planned space station, NASA is welcoming the strides made by its Chinese counterpart, viewing them as a mutual gain for all of mankind in spite of the terrestrial tensions between the two top powers.

"NASA uses space and science as a unifying force," the agency said in a statement sent to Newsweek. "Exploration is a global endeavor, each milestone contributing to humanity's understanding of the universe, and we look forward to China's contributions to increased scientific understanding."

China's planned Tiangong (Heavenly Palace) large modular space station came closer to reality over the weekend in the southern island Hainan province where a massive 18-story LongMarch 5B rocket roared out of the atmosphere, successfully bringing the Tianhe (Harmony of the Heavens) core cabin module into orbit. Citizens waving national flags cheered on and the Xi'an Symphony Orchestra performed.

In a statement released Tuesday, the People's Liberation Army China Manned Space Engineering Office hailed the launch as an inauguration of "the third step" of the country's human space exploration campaign. The first was to send an astronaut—or in China's case, a taikonaut—to and from space safely as the country did in 2003, and the second to conduct extravehicular activity and orbital docking, tasks accomplished in 2008 and 2011, respectively.

Many of China's accomplishments replicated the space feats of Earth's first space explorers, the U.S. and the Soviet Union. That was the case when the Chang'e 5 lunar orbiter, lander and sample collection return vehicle was launched to gather soil from the moon late last year.

Then China took the mission a step further by planting a flag on the moon, making it only the second country to do so, after the U.S. Apollo program half a century ago. China has also set its own firsts, sending the Chang'e 4 to land on the yet untouched far side of the moon in 2019.

Now, after having launched two temporary space labs, China has fielded what is currently one of only two operational space stations, the other being the International Space Station (ISS), first launched in 1998. The ISS today hosts personnel from the U.S., Russia, the European Union, Canada and Japan.

But Chinese personnel are banned from ISS by an amendment to NASA's budget passed by Congress 10 years ago, which was made in response to allegations that China engaged in intellectual property theft, and was using its knowledge from multilateral space cooperation to shore up its intercontinental ballistic missile program.

Concerns about China's practices linger among U.S. policymakers, as evidenced by remarks made last month by former Florida Senator Bill Nelson when asked for his position on the matter during his nomination hearing to head NASA, a role for which he was sworn in on Monday.

"There is a threat China poses in basically getting a lot of our secrets and getting a lot of our technology and invading a lot of our privacy," Nelson told the Senate Commerce Committee at the time. "Now when you take that global concern and bring it to the space program, then you have to be concerned about the same thing."

But Nelson warned that not everyone shared his trepidation.

He noted that U.S. space rival-turned-partner Russia has increasingly shored up its strategic partnership with China to include collaboration in this field, and told lawmakers "you'd better be concerned" about this emerging union, and pointed to one ambitious project in particular.

China and Russia signed a memorandum of understanding in March to team up in pursuit of establishing an International Lunar Research Station (ILRS), a scientific base either on or orbiting the moon. Last week, the China National Space Administration and Russia's Roscosmos announced they were opening the plan up for "possible involvement of other countries, international organizations and other international partners."

In order to participate in either the ILRS or China's Tiangong space station, NASA would need to seek specific approval from the FBI. But Tiangong is attracting other interested parties, including the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), which already has nine projects lined up for the world's newest space station.

 

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