06 June 2018
Looking back at his own working experience in NASA, Keith Cowing, is giving some interesting food for thought about US cooperation with China. In his comment for NASA Watch, he states: "I was working at NASA in the 1990s when we were tasked with planning to bring the former USSR/Russia into the space station program. Xenophobia abounded. Indeed, you can take everything that circulated back then about how awful the Russians were and just replace that with "China". But we made it work and the ISS is a stunning physical manifestation of what nations can do when they elevate something like space exploration above petty politics. ... A new NASA Administrator and an embryonic space policy being formulated by the National Space Council will have to deal with the issue of China. They have a plan and they are sticking to it with steely determination. Do we just pretend they are not there or do we look back at history's successes and embrace China - and other nations - in the exploration and utilization of space?"
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