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A former top Nasa official and scientist will help China implement a new leadership system for its space programme.
Charles Pellerin, who is in Hong Kong for a management consultants Evans & Peck, said he would provide China with management expertise rather than technical know-how.
He was referring to his '4-D management system', which has been used by 700 Nasa teams since 2003 after he developed this from his experiences with the Hubble telescope project, which he called 'the biggest screw-up in scientific history'.
The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), a key player in the mainland's moon-landing programme, has adopted Pellerin's management system.
'I wanted to take the lessons I learned from the mistakes of Hubble and apply it to all teams,' said Pellerin, a physicist who served the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for 30 years, as an engineer, director of its astrophysics division and a member of the Hubble team.
Launching the Hubble telescope in 1990 changed Pellerin's attitude towards leadership. The telescope failed to work due to a faulty mirror soon after it was deployed in space. After the incident Nasa conducted a failure review board.