14 January 2019
There is both optimism and a need for the United States to resume cooperation with China in space exploration, veteran astronaut and former NASA administrator Charles Bolden said days after the Chinese spacecraft Chang'e 4 made a historic soft-landing on the far side of the Moon. "China should feel very proud of having accomplished this. Anytime you can do something that has not been done before, it's a reason for excitement and celebration," he said. Congressional prohibitions on space cooperation with China - as stipulated by the 2011 Wolf Amendment to NASA appropriations bills - is a "significant legal constraint" and "hindrance" that should be relaxed or reversed, Bolden stressed. "I'm incredibly optimistic. I just think cooler heads will prevail," Bolden said in an exclusive interview.
MORE...