A Chinese news source is reporting today that the European Space Agency (ESA) supports China’s inclusion in the International Space Station (ISS) partnership.
ESA’s agency’s director-general Jean-Jacques Dordain made the remarks during a Global Lunar Conference now underway in Beijing, organized by the International Astronautical Federation and the Chinese Society of Astronautics.
Dordain said international cooperation on space exploration has been progressing slowly. To achieve more, he said, the partnership needs to be expanded, according to the Xinhua News Agency.
“I am really willing to support the extension of the partnership of the ISS to China and South Korea. Obviously, this should be a decision by all partners, not the decision by one partner,” he is quoted in the news story.
At the same gathering, Chen Qiufa, vice-minister of industry and information technology in charge of the lunar exploration mission added that China is willing to join international cooperatives, and share technologies and research results with other countries, while independently developing its own technologies.
The ISS is jointly built and run by the United States, Russia, ESA’s 11 member countries, as well as Canada, Japan and Brazil.
In the Xinhua News Agency article, Dordain is noted that he was glad to see that on June 3, the first Russian, Chinese and ESA group will participate in the Mars-500 mission.
“This is the first time that we shall have quasi-astronauts from Russia, China and ESA living together for 520 days. This is a good step,” Dordain said.
The Mars-500 project is a three-stage experiment including a 250-day virtual flight to Mars, a 30-day stay on the planet and a 240-day journey back to earth.