Chris Hadfield, a retired Canadian astronaut, expressed his support to China’s lunar mission and his interest to return to the moon.
Hadfield as an astronaut had flown two space shuttles and served as commander of the International Space Station before he retired in May this year after 35 years of service. He worked with five other astronauts on running dozens of scientific experiments about the impact of gravity on the human body. He also entertained the world by releasing videos of him playing the guitar in space.
Hadfield is making sensible noise again and he wasn’t the only one with such thinking. Even space experts agree that when it comes to matters about space, there is no reason to leave the Chinese out of the picture.
"I think right now a lot of people see it as kind of crazy to co-operate with the Chinese, but I think it's the next logical step," Hadfield recently told The Canadian Press.
China is not new into the space exploration program. It has sent its first astronaut into space ten years ago. Based on the Pentagon’s report, China has conducted a total of 18 space launches before its recent success.
On December 15, China made space history after its first lunar Chang’e 3 soft-landed on the moon’s Bay of Rainbows. This made China the third country in the world to have achieved such after the same thing was achieved by the United States and Soviet Union. It was described as the world’s first lunar space probe soft landing in almost four decades.
Hadfield told CBC News that an experimental space station was launched by China in 2011. The station will be replaced with one that is more permanent and might be completed by 2020. It has also opened its doors to astronauts coming from other countries and will provide them training for such missions. Though retired, Hadfield would like to grab this opportunity.
He also reiterated that there is definitely a great opportunity to welcome China to the space exploration program as an ally and not as competition. The country was previously barred from the program due to conflicting political interests with the U.S.
