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China says it will soon begin training foreign astronauts for trips to its newly completed orbiting space station.
Long a source of national pride and symbol of technological advancement, the Chinese space program is taking on a new diplomatic and political role, much in the way the United States and former Soviet Union leveraged theirs.
Multiple countries have asked for rides to the Tiangong station, program official Chen Shanguang said in an interview with state broadcaster CCTV that aired Saturday.
“We will soon begin to select candidates from those nations for joint flights to our space station, and they will be able to work with our astronauts to carry out scientific tasks in space,” Chen, deputy chief planner of China’s manned space programs, said in the interview that was republished late Monday by the official China Daily newspaper.
Candidates will undergo an initial selection process before being brought to China for intensive training on how to operate China’s Shenzhou spaceships and live and work aboard the station, Chen said.
