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Europe sees hope for greater cooperation in China's manned space

Posted on: Wednesday, 15 October 2003, 06:00 CDT

PARIS (AP) -- China's leap into the exclusive club of nations to have shot people into orbit proves the reliability of its aerospace technology and could pave the way for greater international cooperation, European experts said Wednesday.

``China has symbolically made a strong act,'' France's first woman in space, Claudie Haignere, said as Chinese astronaut Lt. Col. Yang Liwei orbited the planet.

``This flight is an important moment to recognize that China has the capacity to place itself on the level of the great international partners,'' said Haignere, now France's minister for research and new technologies. She spent two weeks on Russia's Mir space station in 1996 and was the first European woman to the International Space Station, in 2001.

Speaking after a meeting of the French Cabinet, Haignere said China's space success was not a threat to Europe.

``We know well that the space sector is a competitive international arena,'' she said. ``There are effectively the great powers that are well known, the United States, Russia and Europe, but there are other great powers that are asserting themselves -- including, for a long time now, China, and India.''

Jean-Jacques Dordain, director general of the European Space Agency, said China's first manned flight could open the way for closer cooperation between space-faring nations. Before China, only the former Soviet Union and the United States had placed people in orbit.

``In becoming the third country to have sent men into space, China has demonstrated the reliability of its aerospace technology,'' he said in a statement. ``This mission could inaugurate a new era of enlarged cooperation within the world space community.''

The Paris-based ESA coordinates European space programs and research and is already working with China on a project called Double Star.

Under the project, Chinese Long March 2C rockets will carry two satellites into orbit in Dec. 2003 and the spring of 2004. They will carry 18 instruments -- 10 from Europe, 8 from China -- to measure the Sun's effects on Earth's atmosphere, the ESA says.

(parf-jl-jg)

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