13 October 2014

Following the participation of several Chinese at the most recent International Astronautical Congress in Toronto, Canada, Spacenews-Columnist Jeff Foust offers a comprehensive assessment about the possible participation of international entities in China's space station plans. “The Chinese people stand ready to work together with people from all over the world,” said Zhou Lini of the Center for National Security and Strategic Studies at China’s National University of Defense Technology in a presentation at the IAC on September 30. [...] Zhou suggested that China would be open to having other nations contribute modules to the station. “China’s space station will still have three docking locations for other modules,” she said, referring to three unoccupied docking ports on that central node. Those modules, she said, could either be developed by other nations independently, or jointly with China. “US, Russia, ESA, and Japan may all have the ability to develop experiment modules and collaborate with China,” she said.

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