Russia and China Plan Cooperation on Long-Distance Space Flight for the “Benefit of All Humankind”

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin told reporters on Monday, that, in addition to the agreements Presidents Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping will sign next Saturday to facilitate China purchasing Russia’s RD-180 engines (the ones that nuts in the U.S. want to stop the U.S. from using) and Russia’s accessing Chinese micro radio electronics for space use, China has “taken a keen interest” in Russian proposals for “joint experimentation for the development of new pharmaceutical products, for commercialization of this process, for creating possibilities for the protection of human musculoskeletal system…. We can also join our efforts in the development of freeze-dried foods, special diets for the restoration of human metabolism,” Rogozin added.

“What is tested in space, is also fully applicable on Earth,” he emphasized. This will provide “a powerful demonstration that the money invested in space exploration is of major use for the people, because the results of this collaboration will be used in the clinical sense — for ensuring people’s safety and health.”

Russia’s Ambassador to China, Andrey Denisov, expanded on the higher principle driving space collaboration between Russia and China, in an interview with TASS Tuesday. Our countries are not discussing merely securing “a batch of goods” between them, but seek “to organize long-term mutually advantageous cooperation” in space work which will “finally benefit the entire humankind.”

Tass quoted Denisov at some length:

“Our country has substantial potential accumulated in the sphere of engine-making. This is a well-known fact… I would emphasize cooperation in outer space activity as a whole rather than a specific delivery of a batch of goods. The point is not to deliver specific equipment but to organize long-term mutually advantageous cooperation of the sides, which are objectively close to each other from the viewpoint of technical and technological compatibility.

“The Chinese space industry was largely created with account taken of our technical developments. While it has long reached the level of independent development and made achievements in recent years in the sphere of Chinese cosmonautics both manned and unmanned, the field for cooperation remains quite broad. This is, perhaps, the main thing. The delivery of rocket engines is quite possible and is viewed both by us and our Chinese partners….

“In a perspective, cooperation is perceptible in the field of designing a heavy rocket and establishing interaction in the sphere of space stations and long-distance flights.

“This is a very promising sphere in whose development both the Russian and Chinese sides are interested…. This cooperation is of purely peaceful, civilian nature and will finally benefit the entire humankind rather than only the participating states.”