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China's space programme
ChinaScience

European Space Agency says it has no plans to send astronauts to China’s Tiangong space station

  • The comments by the ESA’s director general are the first indication it is no longer interested in working with China on human space exploration
  • Josef Aschbacher says the 22 member states are focusing on their commitments to the International Space Station instead

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China finished building the Tiangong space station last year. Photo: Xinhua
Ling Xinin Beijing
A top official with the European Space Agency said it had no plans to send European astronauts to the newly completed Chinese space station, making it clear for the first time that the agency is no longer committed to working with China in human space flight in the near future.

“We are very busy supporting and ensuring our commitments and activities on the International Space Station,” ESA director general Josef Aschbacher told a press conference in Paris on Monday.

“We have neither the budgetary nor political greenlight or intention to engage in a second space station – that is, participating in the Chinese Space Station,” he said in response to an online question about whether ESA was still considering flying astronauts to Tiangong.

Tiangong, which China finished building late last year in low-earth orbit, was a key field of cooperation when ESA and China Manned Space Agency signed an agreement in 2014 to bring their partnership to a new level.

In 2017, ESA sent two astronauts, Samantha Cristoforetti and Matthias Maurer, for a nine-day joint training exercise with Chinese astronauts in the coastal city of Yantai.

“The ultimate goal is for ESA to establish a long term cooperation with China and ESA astronauts to fly on China’s space station,” the agency said that year.

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