NASA: The United States has entered into a space race with China and cooperation with Russia continues

agencies

Thursday, April 20, 2023 03:00 AM

Bill Nelson, head of NASA, stated that the United States has entered a space race with China, and continues to work professionally with the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, despite geopolitical problems.

“We’re in a space race with China, although it didn’t happen the way it did during the Apollo programme,” Nelson said, speaking to the US House Appropriations Committee.

According to the head of the US space agency, China is “carrying out a very successful manned program.”

Nelson said: “Sometimes you can see that their equipment is similar to our equipment or European equipment, but they are the second country in the world that has succeeded in sending a rover to the surface of Mars, and they have succeeded in assembling three parts of the Chinese ground station, and they announced that the astronauts will They go to the moon openly.”

The head of the US space agency “NASA” summed up by saying: “Is this a space race? Yes!”

He noted that the United States, according to its own law, cannot cooperate with China in the space sector. At the same time, Nelson accused Beijing of “secret” regarding its space programmes, stating that the United States “cannot get it to open up”.

In response to questions from lawmakers about competition with China, the NASA chief noted that geopolitical issues have not prevented effective cooperation in space between the United States and Russia.

“We built the International Space Station with the Russians, and now we work together, and there is a joint flight program for the crew,” Nelson said.

According to him, despite the “geopolitical differences on the ground,” as well as the situation in Ukraine, the United States maintains “a very professional relationship between Russian and American cosmonauts.”