U.S. Opens Space Doors to China

Although the United States made it to the moon on its own, future mission will depend heavily on international partnerships.
The next time the United States decides to venture into space, it won't be going alone. Future missions beyond Earth will include Russian, European, Japanese, Canadian and possibly Chinese partners, under a new national space policy unveiled by the Obama administration this week.

 

The ventures will start with projects to build confidence, gain trust and find common ground, such as cleaning up orbital debris, sharing climate information about the planet and collaborating on science missions. The International Space Station could even be tapped for trial runs, though obstacles remain.

 

"I think it's a little premature to talk about China and the space station," said Jim Kohlenberger, chief of staff of the Office of Science and Technology Policy. "It's obviously a very complex policy issue."

 

China carries considerable baggage, including its development, sales and use of military technologies, but also a key asset: a proven space transportation system, something the United States will soon be without.

 

Two space shuttle missions remain before the fleet is retired after 30 years of service, primarily because of high operating costs. Obama wants to buy astronauts rides on commercial carriers, but none currently exist. That leaves the United States dependent on Russia to fly astronauts to the station.

 

"We're rather thin in launch capabilities right now," said Joan Johnson-Freese, who oversees the Naval War College's department of National Security Studies.

 

China has announced plans to build a space station, the first piece of which is scheduled for launch next year.

 

Under the new U.S. space policy, "at least we're going to stop pretending that the Chinese don't exist in terms of space exploration," Johnson-Freese told Discovery News. "Now the doors are open."

 

The biggest stumbling block is going to be the fact that technologies developed for space can be used for military applications.

 

"It's going to be politically difficult," said Johnson-Freese. "If we were to be doing a manned mission (with China), there will be many people anxious to point out what the technology can do in a nefarious state. The list will be long and endless since we already have these people who are making a career out of portraying the Chinese manned space program as a military program."

 

Preliminary steps to space partnerships could include Chinese involvement in tracking and cleaning up space debris. China intentionally destroyed one of its weather satellites in orbit to test a missile, creating more than 2,300 pieces of debris large enough to be tracked by ground radars and millions of smaller pieces. The debris is a collision threat to operational spacecraft orbiting Earth.