Europe’s astronauts learning Mandarin for future China collaboration

European astronauts are learning Mandarin as they prepare to work with Chinese astronauts in future.

The European Space Agency (ESA) director general Jan Werner discussed the move in an interview with the Chinese state news agency Xinhua in Bremen, Germany, on Wednesday on the sidelines of the International Aerospace Congress, the world’s biggest aerospace forum.

Werner said the ESA was very keen to promote international cooperation in the field of aerospace, and that China was a willing collaboration partner.

Made up of 23 European member states, the ESA has already sent a number of European astronauts to train with their Chinese counterparts in China since signing a long-term cooperation agreement in 2015. Many European astronauts are learning Chinese in the hope of joining future Chinese space flight missions.

German astronaut Matthias Maurer, who has previously been interviewed by international media, has been learning Chinese for the past six years.

Maurer previously told Xinhua that he hoped to be one of the first foreign astronauts to reach China’s planned space station, which is expected to be operational in 2022.

“Three of my young colleagues – one German, one Italian and one French – have started learning Chinese because we hope that the first non-Chinese astronaut to fly [in China’s space station] will be a European,” ESA astronaut Jean-Francois Clervoy previously told Xinhua.