World’s space powers should explore ways to work with China: former ISS commander
- Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield says the Chinese programme has displayed ‘tremendous’ ability
- Joint efforts took place even in the depths of the Cold War, he says
The world’s space powers should find ways to overcome “political inertia” and work with China to explore worlds beyond Earth, according to a Canadian astronaut who worked on both the Russian and American-led space programmes.
He said that while “the inertia of politics including protection of proprietary technology will remain as concerns”, there was a lot of room for cooperation with other countries.
“Countries and companies have spent a tremendous amount of time and taxpayers’ money or company funds developing something, then obviously, they want to benefit from their investment. If you have the military’s involvement, you have to keep quiet working on things that can’t be public knowledge for security reasons,” he said.
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Hadfield said there were also moments of cooperation in the depths of the Cold War between the then Soviet Union and the United States, despite the “huge tension and animosity” that inspired his space thriller The Apollo Murders.