Leaders of the international space station (ISS) partner organizations met March 1 in Quebec City, and some expressed an interest in welcoming China to their ranks, Global Montreal reported.
“I am in favor of seeing how we can work together with China,” Jean-Jacques Dordain, director-general of the European Space Agency (ESA), told reporters after the meeting. “It will take some steps, but it will come, I am sure.”
Vladimir Popovkin, the head of the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, said the day will come when China and India will work together with the five current partners — the United States, Russia, Canada, Japan and the ESA. “We are not a closed club,” he said. “Our doors are wide open.”
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said the partners are reaching out to other nations but the U.S. space agency is prohibited by congressional action from any bilateral activities with China.
