Former NASA Official, Astronaut Urge China Partnership in ISS

[Buster's Uncle]

Former NASA Official, Astronaut Urge China Partnership in ISS
By Mark Whittington | Yahoo! Contributor Network – 19 hrs ago


The debate over whether to and to what extent the United States should cooperate with China in space has received new attention thanks to a recent oped in Discovery News by a former NASA official and a former NASA astronaut.

However critics of such Sino-American space engagement remain.

The case for China becoming a partner in the International Space Station

George Abbey, former director of the Johnson Space Center, and Leroy Chiao, a former NASA astronaut, make the case for making China a partner in the International Space Station. While Abbey and Chiao make a number of claims about the development of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle and the heavy lift Space Launch System, their main argument rests on the so-called "space flight gap." With the end of the space shuttle program, the only means by which astronauts can access the ISS is via the Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Bringing in the Chinese as ISS partners would add the Shenzhou, a manned spacecraft flown in a number of missions that can be adapted docking with the ISS. The article also makes the claim that America would enhance its space leadership if it takes the initiative in making China an ISS partner.

The Heritage Foundation urges caution

Writing for the Heritage Foundation in June, Dean Cheng urged caution in any cooperation effort with China in the manned spaceflight field. Cheng suggests that China would be unwilling to engage in such cooperation unless it was advantageous to it. China would use such a cooperation effort to constrain American space efforts and to engage in legal warfare that would be designed to enhance its state-supported aerospace companies at the expense of the United States and American companies.

China's space efforts designed to deploy its own space station, manned moon landing

While the debate still rages in the West over cooperating in space with China, that country is forging ahead with its own indigenous space program. International Business Times, quoting an Agence France Press story, announced that the Shenzhou-10 mission is slated to visit the Tiangong-1 module currently in orbit around the Earth. The Shenzhou-9 had previously visited the space module, carrying out China's first manned docking between two spacecraft. China intends to build a multi-module space station of its own by the end of the current decade. Further in the future, China has hinted that it would like to land its space explorers on the lunar surface, a feat last accomplished by NASA 40 years ago, with the flight of Apollo 17 in December 1972.

http://news.yahoo.com/former-nasa-official-astronaut-urge-china-partnership-iss-221900905.html

[Unorthodox]

China would be unwilling to engage in such cooperation unless it was advantageous to it.

As if we're engaged in the current cooperation out of pure charity.  The whole point of COOPERATION is to be adventageous to everyone involved. 

Guess the real question is how far out is the Dragon for human flight?  Hard to find info on that. 

[Buster's Uncle]

You make good sense - the Russians are not in it out of love for us.

[Green1]

From what i have seem to have read, crewed dragon is awaiting a man-rated rocket. But, Elon Musk is definately aiming in that direction. 2015-16 if nothing blows up between now and then?