Dec. 23, 2008

Michael Braukus
Headquarters, Washington
202-669-1886
michael.j.braukus{at}nasa.gov

RELEASE: 08-336

NASA RESPONSE TO AVIATION WEEK AND SPACE TECHNOLOGY ARTICLE

WASHINGTON -- NASA recently submitted the following response to
Aviation Week:

Unfortunately, Aviation Week's recent article of Dec. 21, 2008,
entitled "Bush Administration Nixed NASA's U.S.-China Cooperation
Idea," is inaccurate and misleading.

As an initial matter, NASA has never asked the White House for a
cooperative mission such as the one described in the article. The
fact is that the White House has been very supportive of a deliberate
and careful establishment of relations between NASA and the China
National Space Administration (CNSA) over the past two years. As a
result, NASA commenced working group discussions with CNSA
representatives on Earth and space science earlier this year. The
discussions of potential areas of future cooperation were based on
the principles of mutual benefit, reciprocity, and transparency, with
the understanding that any proposal for specific projects would
undergo careful review within the United States Government. Approval
would, of course, be affected by the overall status of the U.S.-China
government-to-government relationship. The Alpha Magnetic
Spectrometer (AMS), space shuttle flights, and International Space
Station were never intended by either NASA or CNSA to be considered
by the NASA-CNSA working group.

Regarding AMS, it is not an international project managed by NASA;
the
international aspects of AMS are managed by the Department of Energy
(DOE). Currently, NASA is prepared to take necessary steps to fly one
additional space shuttle flight to deliver AMS to the International
Space Station before the scheduled retirement of the shuttle in 2010,
provided that additional funding is provided to the agency for this
additional flight. However, we anticipate this flight will be
reviewed by the new administration.


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