News China collects Moon samples, doesn't share with NASA over Wolf Amendment

Tek

Well-known member
Member
Joined
Dec 11, 2018
Messages
1,185
Trophies
0
China's increasingly ambitious space program completed a 23-day mission on Wednesday that culminated in the return of about 2kg of rocks from the Moon. During the final phase of the mission, a singed spacecraft carrying the lunar cargo landed in Mongolia and was recovered by Chinese teams.

This Chang'e 5 mission represents a significant success for China and its space program, becoming only the third nation—after the United States with its crewed Apollo program and the Soviet Union with a robotic program in the 1970s—to return samples from the Moon.
During a post-landing news conference, Chinese officials said they would emulate the United States and Soviet Union in sharing the samples with international partners, including the United Nations. However, sharing material with the United States seems unlikely due to the Wolf Amendment, a law passed by Congress in 2011 that prohibits direct cooperation with China.

"The Chinese government is ready to share samples, including data, with all like-minded institutions from other countries," said Wu Yanhua, vice administrator of the China National Space Administration. However, he then called the Wolf Amendment adopted by Congress "unfortunate" and indicated direct cooperation with NASA would probably not occur.
During the news conference, Wu said the country would eventually send humans—called taikonauts in China—to the Moon but did not set a date for this mission. The country still must develop several technologies to make this happen. However, he said, when China does go to the Moon, it will be to conduct research and benefit humanity, not as part of some "space race" like the United States and Soviet Union undertook in the 1960s.
NASA is also interested in returning to the Moon with humans during the 2020s. Whether China's increasing interest in Earth's companion spurs Congress or the Biden administration to more fully fund NASA's Artemis program ambitions, however, will not be clear until the next couple of budget cycles are complete.

 

Latest content

General chat
Help Show users
  • No one is chatting at the moment.
      There are no messages in the chat. Be the first one to say Hi!
      Back
      Top