China and NASA

Chinese space officials are meeting with NASA leadership this week in Washington. It follows a visit to China by a NASA delegation last summer.

Since that visit, China has made its plans for manned spaceflight clear. It aims to launch Shenzhou 8 and 9, both unmanned, and dock them, creating a small space platform, in 2010. If that is successful, a manned Shenzhou 10 will be launched to fly to the platform, where the crew will conduct experiments. China plans to have a large space station in Earth orbit in 2020.

More than once, Chinese officials have stated publicly that China intends to put humans on the Moon in the not-too-distant future. Several natioms have openly expressed interest in being part of an international effort to establish a lunar base. Given the definite possibility of an economic slowdown lasting a while in the U. S. and elsewhere, sharing the cost of such a program among several nations might make sense as a way to keep manned spaceflight moving forward. One wonders if such a notion might be discussed in Washington today or tomorrow.