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Friday, April 23, 2010

China Warms to Joint Human Spaceflights

Wang Wenbao, head of the China Manned Space Engineering Office, says his agency is prepared to cooperate across the board on human spaceflight with NASA and other agencies, including joint human missions and unpiloted logistics with the 5.5-ton-payload-capacity cargo vehicle it plans to test, reports Aviation Week.

That would require detailed discussions on a uniform standard for docking and other interfaces, Wang said here in his first interview with Western reporters. He hopes the issue will be addressed during NASA Administrator Charles Bolden’s delayed visit to Beijing.

“We think that a joint spaceflight mission, joint development of space equipment and also joint utilization of space platforms are the most possible field to carry out discussion at the moment,” Wang says [More].

Upon a return from China last year, this Blogger advocated a joint mission among the Chinese, Russians and Americans using Russian and Chinese spacecraft as early as 2012-2013 including a commercial space flight participant-diplomat from the American side with a second flight to the Chinese mini-station by a NASA astronaut. It is still a good concept to pursue.

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