While China has been going it alone, for the most part, with its human spaceflight program so far, its open to greater international cooperation as it develops a permanent space station (above). (credit: China Manned Space Agency)

The annual International Astronautical Congress (IAC) offers an opportunity to get a global perspective on space efforts often lacking elsewhere. That is, when delegates from other nations can actually attend. This years IAC, held two weeks ago in Toronto, was marked by the absence of top Chinese and Russian officials, who were deniedor, at least, somehow unable to obtainvisas for the event, for reasons never made clear by conference organizers or Canadian officials (see Canadian space at a crossroads, The Space Review, October 13, 2014.)

However, whatever issues that prevented officials from the China National Space Administration and Roscosmos from attending were not blanket prohibitions against all Chinese and Russian participants. Some delegates from both countries, primarily from industry and academia, were able to attend. The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation had a large exhibit as well, showing off models of Long March rockets, the Change-3 lander, and Yutu rover.

One presentation in particular shed some light on Chinas long-term human spaceflight plans, which center on the development of a permanent space station in low Earth orbit in the early 2020s. While those plans have been widely publicized, what hasnt been as well known is the role of international cooperation in that effort.

The Chinese people stand ready to work together with people from all over the world, said Zhou Lini of the Center for National Security and Strategic Studies at Chinas National University of Defense Technology in a presentation at the IAC on September 30.

International cooperation in Chinas human spaceflight program has been limited so far. A few Shenzhou missions have flown experiments from Canada and Europe. Russia supported development of Chinese spacecraft development and astronaut training, and also provided one spacesuit used on Chinas firstand, to date, onlyspacewalk on the Shenzhou-7 mission in 2008 (a second spacesuit used in the spacewalk was developed in China.) However, Chinas human spaceflight program has otherwise relied exclusively on domestic resources, capabilities, and personnel.

However, in her presentation and accompanying paper, Zhou suggested China would be open to far more significant cooperation with other nations as it develops its space station. That three-person station, as currently envisioned, would consist of three modules: a core module named Tianhe and two experiment modules, Xuntian and Tianwen. The three modules would join together at a central node, giving the station an appearance not unlike the Soviet/Russian Mir station at an early phase of its life.

Zhou suggested that China would be open to having other nations contribute modules to the station. Chinas space station will still have three docking locations for other modules, she said, referring to three unoccupied docking ports on that central node. (One of those three, in illustrations of the station, is occupied by a visiting Shenzhou spacecraft; presumably at least one additional module would need to include a Shenzhou docking port.)

Those modules, she said, could either be developed by other nations independently, or jointly with China. US, Russia, ESA, and Japan may all have the ability to develop experiment modules and collaborate with China, she said.

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The role of international cooperation in China's space station plans