China back in space, but tensions with US make cooperation difficult

In the end, only nine foreign experiences go to Tianhe. 42 proposals were submitted. Space agency ESA would like to have more European tests on board, but this has become increasingly difficult in recent years, says Karl Bergquist, head of international relations at ESA.

About ten years ago, cooperation between Europe and China began with hope. “We have started consultations to see if we can work together on space science, space technology and also flight capabilities for European astronauts.”

Some European astronauts have started learning Chinese, and Chinese and European astronauts have traveled back and forth for survival training at ESA and in China. ESA and China are collaborating and exchanging the results of ten scientific projects. But with growing tensions between the United States and China in particular, more ambitious plans are under pressure.

An American particle can be an obstacle

Export regulations in particular are holding back action, sighs Bergquist. “We read all the papers. The United States doesn’t want American technology exported to China, so if there is an American part in something, that’s a problem.”

Marc Klein Wolt of Radboud University in Nijmegen also saw how complicated it is to send an instrument into space with a Chinese rocket. In 2018, a scientific radio antenna with a Chinese satellite positioned itself behind the moon to pick up weak radio signals from the early universe. “ESA supervised the contact with China, but they did not provide the antenna to China. We had to do it ourselves.”