Editorial Calls for U.S./China Space Collaboration

“It is clear the United States’ international partners see the benefits of working with the Chinese on the space station; it is time for the United States to provide the leadership to make it a reality.”

That is the concluding statement in an editorial on NBCNews.com authored by George W.S. Abbey, the Baker Botts senior fellow in space policy at the Baker Institute at Rice University, and Dr. Leroy Chiao, former NASA astronaut and special adviser – human spaceflight for the Space Foundation.

The article explores the need for dual access to the International Space Station (ISS), China’s agressive lunar programs and growing interest in collaboration with China from many nations around the world.

And, it gives a practical guideline to how a partnership could work, “A partnership with China could be developed along the same lines as was done with integrating the Russian space program into the ISS partnership. Using this model, no military-sensitive technology would be transferred. China’s economy would allow for it to fully fund its own efforts. Thus there would be little increased expense to the United States for developing this advantageous relationship.”

To read the article, click here.

This article is part of Space Watch: December 2012 (Volume: 11, Issue: 12).