World Blog by humble servant. Ukraine Chronicle 891 NASA chides China The US agency’s chief has complained that Beijing isn’t cooperating with Washington on space ventures.China to build space ‘defense system’
.NASA chief Bill Nelson has scolded the Chinese space program for refusing to work with the US on its operations, saying Beijing’s secrecy has created unnecessary risks.
“We simply have not been able to get any kind of transparency from the Chinese space program,” Nelson told reporters on Tuesday. He made his comments in a press briefing ahead of Wednesday’s successful SpaceX launch of a rocket carrying a new astronaut crew to the International Space Station.
Nelson has warned of an emerging space race with China and has frequently called for the Chinese space program to collaborate with NASA. Lamenting on Tuesday that no such cooperation from Beijing has been forthcoming, he gave the example of an April 2021 incident in which Chinese space officials declined to share tracking data with the US or other countries as a rocket booster careened back toward earth after carrying a space station module into orbit.
“They didn’t reserve enough fuel to have a controlled re-entry, and thank the Good Lord it came down in the Indian Ocean,” Nelson recalled. “But it could have come down in Europe, it could have come down in Saudi Arabia, it could have come down in Greece.” He added that NASA engineers were forced to make their own calculations of the booster’s track back toward Earth.
“We simply have not been able to get any kind of transparency from the Chinese space program,” Nelson told reporters on Tuesday. He made his comments in a press briefing ahead of Wednesday’s successful SpaceX launch of a rocket carrying a new astronaut crew to the International Space Station.
Nelson has warned of an emerging space race with China and has frequently called for the Chinese space program to collaborate with NASA. Lamenting on Tuesday that no such cooperation from Beijing has been forthcoming, he gave the example of an April 2021 incident in which Chinese space officials declined to share tracking data with the US or other countries as a rocket booster careened back toward earth after carrying a space station module into orbit.
“They didn’t reserve enough fuel to have a controlled re-entry, and thank the Good Lord it came down in the Indian Ocean,” Nelson recalled. “But it could have come down in Europe, it could have come down in Saudi Arabia, it could have come down in Greece.” He added that NASA engineers were forced to make their own calculations of the booster’s track back toward Earth.
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