"I speak on behalf of the United States and hope that China will become a partner"
On August 25, 2021, at the 36th Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, NASA Director Bill Nelson finally said the last thing he wanted to say!
But Bill Nelson added at the same time:
"However, China is very secretive, and the civilian space program must be transparent in part."
It seems that as the stubborn Nelson as the director of NASA, he is defending his last shred of dignity!

<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="6" > former partners ESA and Russia were invited, and the United States still panicked? </h1>
On June 12, 2019, Xinhua Net reported that the China Manned Space Engineering Office and the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs jointly announced in Vienna on the 12th that 9 projects from 17 countries had become the first batch of selected projects for Scientific Experiments on The Chinese Space Station. This marks a new stage in China's international cooperation on the space station.
The projects come from 23 institutions in 17 countries, including Switzerland, Poland, Germany, Italy, Norway, France, Spain, the Netherlands, India, Russia, Belgium, Kenya, Japan, Saudi Arabia, China, Mexico, Peru, and the projects cover space astronomy, microgravity fluid physics and combustion science, earth sciences, applied new technologies, space life sciences and biotechnology.
What is more interesting is that the United States also submitted an application, but did not select, when the reporter asked the United States when the United States rejected China's participation in the International Space Station project, whether China rejected the project from the United States, Zhou Jianping, chief designer of China's manned space project, replied:
We didn't exclude any country, we didn't limit any scope, and there were American teams involved in the declared projects. The U.S. project was not selected because it did not meet the standards we required.
Of course, the author does not want to explain that China retaliated against the United States, but sincerely opened the door, but the space station resources are precious, and it is natural that unqualified projects are not selected!
The scene of the press conference filmed in Vienna, Austria, on June 12
Many friends think that these 17 countries have been invited to participate in China's space station projects, but in fact, it is a misunderstanding, these projects are involved in China's space is not wrong, but it does not mean that the future can board the space station, of course, China did not exclude everyone, but the world can apply to China, but the answer to who will be allowed to enter the space station in the future is unknown.
ESA astronauts are training
As early as 27 June 2018, the BBC FUTURE reported that ESA German astronaut Matthias Maurer and another ESA astronaut, Samantha Christopher Letti, were in China on an astronaut training mission at the Yantai Training Center.
Maurer said that training here and the United States are completely different, in the United States only a few hours to see his colleagues, but in China, in addition to training, everyone lives in the same building, he is very happy to be integrated into the big family, even on vacation.
Maurer also said that China's spacecraft is relatively large, it is easier to climb out of the cabin in a life jacket when splashing on the sea, and even there are rubber boats in the spaceship, which is unimaginable when training in Russia, and the water is too cold when training in Russia, and survival training is extremely difficult (this is no way, China will also arrange survival training in alpine areas).
China and Russia have cooperated for many years, including the Shenzhou spacecraft is also very similar to the Alliance spacecraft, such as the early China use of Russia's zero gravity aircraft, the earliest Seahawk spacesuit is the version of Russian astronauts, and later there is China's flying spacesuit, the first time out of the capsule, In the orbital module out of the half of the body of Liu Boming wearing the "SeaHawk" extravehicular space suit, and the extravehicular activity Zhai Zhigang wore a flying space suit designed by China, from this point can be seen the depth of Sino-Russian space cooperation.
If one day China agreed to the ESA and Russian astronauts entering the Chinese space station, the flower growers would not be surprised at all, and they would have laid the groundwork for so long.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="37" > So, is the United States panicking? </h1>
It should be said that it should be said and it should not be, why is it such a precise answer? There's a reason for that! The answer is actually quite simple, because it is difficult for the United States to gather a group of "brothers" to build another International Space Station. It took 13 years to finally complete the International Space Station after the launch of the first Aurora functional module on November 15, 1998.
It is not too expensive, about 155.1 billion US dollars, of which the United States invested 1311 US dollars, compared with the War in Afghanistan burning 300 million US dollars a day, it is more than a year, but the problem is that the United States is no longer the United States more than twenty years ago, this time the Fed indiscriminately issued US debt, no one pays anymore, where does this money come from? The landlord's family also has no surplus grain!
And Russia has made it clear that it intends to go it alone, the original life of the International Space Station is 2024, after the extension of life to 2030, the maintenance cost is too high, but it is a pity to abandon it, although the International Space Station is huge, the total mass reaches 420 tons, but it and Russia have their own small nine-nine, many interfaces are not universal, and the function module is repeated, and the utilization rate is relatively low.
On the contrary, it was launched on April 29, 2021, and the Tiangong space station, which has been in orbit for nearly 4 months, is more reasonable, and can complete most of the tasks of the International Space Station with smaller mass and volume, and after completion in 2022, it may also be expanded to a larger scale, the basic and international space station functions are no different, and will be better!
Therefore, after 2030, NASA will face a more embarrassing situation, whether to continue to extend the life of the International Space Station, or to launch a new space station, otherwise the United States, the world's premier spaceflight, will lose its leadership position in space, which is not allowed.
A private space station, ready to come out?
As early as 2015, it was reported that the private space station would be ready to come out, and the only one who currently has the ability to launch a private space station is Space X, but Musk's will seems to be on the starship, although the test stumbles, but Musk's character seems to be unsuccessful and does not stop, we wish the old horse can succeed.
If the starship succeeds, then the 200-ton carrying capacity in low-Earth orbit is very tempting, the construction of the space station will soon be on the agenda, and the only remaining problem is money!
But even so, the construction of the space station needs source power, and the face battle between China and who will lead the global spaceflight may make the United States regain confidence in the space station, from this point of view, NASA will not have doubts, after all, since the era of the moon landing, the United States has been the leader of global spaceflight, the Americans have a heavy burden, and Chinese does not.
Americans may never have felt so powerless, despite the magic weapon of the International Space Station, but in their twilight years, how can we talk about ambition? Before this has completely lost its leadership position, while there is still some right to speak, it will issue an "invitation" to China, highlighting the arrogance of the United States and paving the way for the future.
But who doesn't recognize the classic American routine? All of this is just a stepping stone, when americans refused to Chinese join the International Space Station, the Wolf Clause of 2011 banned any joint scientific activity between NASA and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy from technical exchanges with the Government of the People's Republic of China, and on June 23, NASA Director Nelson said at a hearing in the U.S. House of Representatives that he supported perpetuating the "Wolf Clause" that excludes China from participating in the International Space Station.
In the ear, this Nelson turned his face faster than turning the book, the purpose is that everyone knows that this little brother is about to mix with China, and then he does not have a high posture to show it, and it is embarrassing to wait until the next time everyone meets! So former astronaut Comrade Bill Nelson, stay on the line, see each other in the future, don't talk too much, do things too dead!