JAKARTA - The United States (US) and China often compete in terms of technology, including space affairs. However, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said the two could unite to develop the space industry.
Unfortunately, Musk's wishes were immediately blocked by a sizeable political problem. Musk expressed his hope when responding to The Mars Society's article entitled US and China: Cooperation or competition in space?.
"Some collaboration would be great. Some amount of collaboration would be great," Musk tweeted as quoted from Futurism, Saturday, September 24.
It is known, there are rules that restrict NASA from using federal funds to engage with the Chinese government. In The Wolf Amendment passed by the US Congress in 2011, it severely limits bilateral cooperation with the Chinese government, in an effort to stop the practice of espionage. This means that China is considered their biggest enemy.
"In reality, China's civilian space program is their military space program. That's why I think we're going to be in a space race with China," said NASA administrator Bill Nelson.
This has an impact where China cannot access the International Space Station (ISS) like other NASA partner countries. They also decided to develop their own space station, dubbed Tiangong.
However, Musk did not reveal what form of cooperation he expects between the US and China. The man who also founded Tesla may have been inspired to see China's success in landing a robotic rover on Mars, and their efforts to build their own space station.
Another possibility, Musk also sees NASA and Russia will immediately stop operating the ISS in 2024. That means, the US and NASA no longer have a presence in space.
And another guess, since the ISS is Musk's biggest source of revenue for launching SpaceX cargo, Musk doesn't want to lose that, and may plan to use the Chinese space station for his business.
Musk's relationship with China is also known to be quite good compared to the US Congress itself. Especially when it comes to the Tesla company, which has made great strides to expand its footprint in the Chinese market.
Indeed, China has often made great strides in the space industry. They launched the first core module from Tiangong and sent three astronauts there. Not only that, they managed to return samples of Moon rocks to Earth last year and became the first country to do so since 1976. In fact, they managed to land a Mars rover some time ago.
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