Astronaut Leroy Chiao Says Work With China

In a SPECIAL COMMENTARY TO CNN, former ASTRONAUT LEROY CHIAO who served as a NASA astronaut from 1990 to 2005 and flew four missions into space, including flights aboard the space shuttles Columbia, Endeavour and Discovery, said "BRING CHINA INTO THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION PROGRAM. CHINA IS THE ONLY OTHER ENTITY BESIDES THE U.S. AND RUSSIA WITH A HUMAN SPACEFLIGHT CAPABILITY. IN FACT CHINA IS, AT THE MOMENT, THE ONLY ENTITY THAT CAN LAUNCH ASTRONAUTS INTO LOW EARTH ORBIT." "Here's how it might work. NASA would follow the model used to begin work with the Russians in the early 1990s. TECHNICAL EXCHANGES of specialists and astronauts would pave the way for developing plans, processes and procedures to allow modification of the SHENZHOU SPACECRAFT to rendezvous and dock with the ISS, with JOINT CHINESE, U.S. AND RUSSIAN CREWS. The United States would lead these efforts," Chiao suggests. Chiao is EXECUTIVE VICE-PRESIDENT of EXCALIBUR ALMAZ LIMITED, a commercial spaceflight company headquartered in Isle of Man, British Isles. EA and its support contractors are located in Moscow, Tokyo, Houston and Los Angeles.

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