U.S. offer to assist Chinese into space

Press, 26 April 1984, Page 14

U.S. offer to assist Chinese into space

NZPA-Reuter Peking The United States has suggested putting a Chinese scientist in space as part of a proposed co-operation pact on space technology with Peking, said a United States Embassy spokesman in Peking. Talks on the proposed cooperation agreement began earlier this year and there have been discussions between embassy officials and the Chinese Government, he said.

One United States proposal was to put a Chinese technician in space who would help with joint experiments to be flown abroad the American space shuttle Challenger. Another involved launching a Chinese satellite from the shuttle, said the spokesman.

He said the talks were still in a preliminary stage and the embassy was waiting for an official Chinese response to the proposals. If agreement on the space technology co-operation pact were reached, it would take two to three years before a Chinese technical expert would be put in space to help with a number of experiments, the spokesman said. The United States is also discussing a nuclear cooperation agreement with China ahead of the visit, Chinese officials say. The' United States signed a science and technology accord with China in 1979 and agreed on an additional space protocol in May last year, the spokesman said. China entered the space

age in April, 1970, when it launched a satellite laden with scientific instruments, with a short-wave transmitter beaming back the Maoist anthem, “The East is Red.”

It has since sent up a series of experimental satellites and has announced plans for its first geostationary communications satellite, to be launched possibly later this year.

China is looking to space to reform much of its telecommunications system and in January this year reached agreement with a Canadian company to buy 15 ground stations for satellite communications. It has also signed co-operation agreements with several west European countries.