NASA Administrator to talk human space flight cooperation with Chinese in October

Plans are well along for NASA Administrator Charles Bolden to make a delayed trip to Beijing, China for what may be the opening round of talks leading to closer international cooperation in human spaceflight, reports Frank Morring, Jr. at Aviation Week.

NASA officials stressed that there has been no final invitation for Bolden to visit China at a specific time. However, officials in Beijing already are preparing for the visit, amid suggestions at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) meeting today in Prague that it could come in October.

Wang Wenbao, head of the China Manned Space Engineering Office, recently told U.S. reporters China was ready to discuss interface parameters for docking the Shenzhou crew vehicle to the International Space Station.

This Blogger has advocated joint Chinese-Russian-American spaceflights to the international space station as a commercial venture as opposed to pure government-to-government. The second flight could be to the Chinese space station. Perhaps, the suggestion will be taken seriously to avoid international law (treaty) concerns and prove the worth of capitalistic cooperation and "non-traditional partners."