Europe wants China to bring people to space

A senior official of the European Space Agency (ESA) said that it is likely that European astronauts will orbit the Chinese ship in this decade.

In an interview in the city of Berlin, Thomas Reiter, ESA's head of space flights and an astronaut, said ESA is considering the possibility of cooperating with China in its main activity. dress space.

Mr. Thomas Reiter, a former astronaut of the European Space Agency. (Photo: AP)

'I welcome the idea of ​​bringing a European astronaut to China's airship. ESA advocates to increase the level of cooperation with China in space exploration and general flights that may take place in the second half of the decade. In fact, some of our astronauts have started learning Chinese , 'Reiter said.

Although a member of the International Space Program, ESA still has no spacecraft to bring people to orbit the earth. Whenever they want to bring astronauts to orbit, ESA has to spend money to rent space in US and Russian vessels.

After the US space shuttle fleet ceased operations, ESA depended entirely on Russia for bringing people to space.

In 2003, China became the third country in the world to send people to orbit, after Russia and the United States.

Reiter revealed that 19 member states of ESA held a series of talks with the National Space Agency of China to discuss the possibility of cooperation in astronaut training, spacecraft assembly and manufacturing. astronaut support system.

'A flight with the participation of both European and Chinese astronauts could take place after higher-level political negotiations,' he said.