China’s historic achievement
In June, China made history by becoming the first nation to retrieve rock samples from the moon’s permanently dark side. Chinese officials have expressed a willingness to share these samples with scientists worldwide, although they have also pointed to a U.S. law that limits NASA’s cooperation with China.
Loan agreement negotiations
The Reuters report revealed that during the International Astronautical Congress in Milan, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson confirmed that his agency has been negotiating with Chinese representatives about the terms of a loan agreement for the moon rocks. He reassured American lawmakers “a month or two ago” that these discussions would not pose national security concerns. “We are now going through further clarification” with China, he said.
Nelson expressed optimism that the talks would conclude “positively,” with China likely to grant access to the samples. The uncrewed Chang’e-6 spacecraft, which landed on the moon’s South Pole-Aitken Basin, returned to Earth on June 25 carrying these moon samples.
The negotiations around the moon rocks represent one of the few ongoing exchanges between the U.S. and China in space, despite the two nations being major competitors in military and economic domains. Both countries are the largest space powers and economies globally.
U.S. officials from various government agencies have recently undertaken efforts to engage with China to establish points of coordination and communication in space, as revealed by three U.S. officials who requested anonymity. This shift in strategy aims to avoid miscalculations during future space operations.
Criticism and legislative challenges
However, U.S.-Chinese scientific cooperation has faced criticism from lawmakers concerned about the military rivalry between the two nations. In August, the Biden administration allowed a longstanding science and technology agreement with China to expire, with ongoing discussions regarding its renewal.Diplomacy in space has often been complicated by the 2011 U.S. law known as the Wolf Amendment, which prohibits NASA from collaborating with China unless it can be demonstrated that such discussions wouldn’t threaten U.S. national security. This law requires NASA to work with the FBI to certify these interactions for Congress.
Engagement with the Pentagon
China has stepped up its interactions with the Pentagon and various U.S. agencies this year concerning its space activities, including rocket launch notifications and satellite reentries into Earth’s atmosphere. As per Reuters, Stephen Whiting, commander of the U.S. military’s Space Command, commented on this increased engagement, stating, “China had done this episodically, but not like they’re doing now.” He noted that as China expands its space operations, it likely sees the value in mechanisms to enhance safety.
Concerns have been raised by space companies and scientists that ongoing military and economic tensions between the U.S. and China could jeopardise a new era of satellite communications and exploration missions, including sending astronauts to the moon and beyond. Under NASA’s Artemis program, the U.S. plans to return astronauts to the moon for the first time in fifty years, while China aims to land its own astronauts in a similar lunar region by 2030.
Both countries are also deploying constellations of low Earth-orbiting satellites, adding urgency to the U.S. goal of establishing global standards for space traffic management. U.S. officials have criticised China’s practice of allowing its rocket boosters to fall to Earth uncontrolled, which poses risks to rural communities.
With inputs from Reuters