By Li Qiang, Feng Xuejun, People’s Daily
The China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) and the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) jointly announced the first batch of nine scientific projects selected for the China Space Station (CSS) at a press conference in Vienna, Austria on June 12 local time.
The nine projects involve 23 research bodies from 17 countries, including Switzerland, Poland, Germany, Italy, Norway, France, Spain, the Netherlands, India, Russia, Belgium, Kenya, Japan, Saudi Arabia, China, Mexico, and Peru. Some are from governmental agencies while some are from privately-owned entities.
Besides, the first batch covers a wide range of disciplines from space astronomy, microgravity physics and combustion science, geosciences, to space life sciences and biotechnology.
Wang Qun, Permanent Representative and Ambassador Plenipotentiary and Extraordinary of the Permanent Mission of the People’s Republic of China to the United Nations and other International Organizations in Vienna, described the move as a vivid manifestation of China’s embrace of multilateralism, inclusiveness and openness and its commitment to sustainable development.
It embodies the vision of building a community with a shared future for mankind in outer space, said Wang.
At the press conference, Simonetta Di Pippo, director of UNOOSA, highly commended Chinese government’s efforts to open its space station to all the UN members.
She said that such a measure will strongly promote the international cooperation in manned space exploration, and engage more countries in the study on manned space flight.
