Moon sample talks show space engagement by rivals US and China

NASA and Chinese officials are engaged in talks to let American scientists analyze rocks retrieved by China from the moon's far side, according to the head of the U.S. space agency, as Washington pursues improved communication with Beijing on issues involving space.

China in June became the first country to collect rock samples from the permanently dark side of the moon's surface, a demonstration of its growing prowess in space. Chinese officials offered the material to the world's scientists for study but publicly mentioned a U.S. law that limits cooperation by NASA with China.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said officials with his agency have been discussing with their Chinese counterparts the terms of Beijing's loan agreement for the moon rocks after he assured American lawmakers "a month or two ago" that the talks would not pose national security concerns.

"We are now going through further clarification" with China, Nelson told Reuters at the International Astronautical Congress, a gathering of the world's space agencies, in Milan.

Nelson said he thinks the talks will end "positively," with China agreeing to provide access to the samples.

A large screen shows news footage of the lunar surface taken with the landing camera on the lander of Chang'e-6 lunar probe, during an evening news broadcast in Beijing, China June 4, 2024. Reuters

China's uncrewed Chang'e-6 spacecraft returned to Earth on June 25 carrying the moon samples. Chang'e-6 earlier had landed on the moon's South Pole-Aitken Basin, an impact crater on the side of the moon that always faces away from Earth.

The discussions on access to the rocks are among a handful of ongoing exchanges between the United States and China on space issues even as the countries continue to compete for military and economic dominance in space. They are the world's two biggest space powers and two biggest economies.

Officials from multiple U.S. government agencies in the past year have embarked on delicate efforts to engage with China to establish areas of coordination and communication in space, according to three U.S. officials involved in the talks, speaking on condition of anonymity. This represents a shift in U.S. strategy toward China's space program that is aimed at avoiding miscalculations in future space operations, they said.

U.S.-Chinese scientific cooperation has been criticized in recent years by some U.S. lawmakers focused on the military rivalry between the two nations. In August, President Joe Biden's administration let a decades-old science and technology agreement with China expire. The two countries are now negotiating over whether to renew it.

A large screen shows news footage of China's Chang'e-6 lunar probe collecting a sample from the far side of the moon, in Beijing, China June 4, 2024. Reuters

Diplomacy on space has long been deterred by a 2011 U.S. law called the Wolf Amendment, named after now-retired U.S. congressman Frank Wolf, that was passed by Congress to ensure that American technologies stay out of the hands of China's military. Under this law, NASA must work with the FBI to certify to Congress that any such talks with China would not threaten U.S. national security.

Space has become an increasingly contested arena, charged by the rise of Elon Musk's U.S.-based company SpaceX and a resurgence in interest by governments in expanding satellite communication networks and space exploration.

Engagement with Pentagon

China this year stepped up its engagement with the Pentagon and various U.S. agencies on its space activities, from rocket launch notifications to the timing of its satellite reentries into Earth's atmosphere, Stephen Whiting, the commander of the U.S. military's Space Command, told Reuters.

"China had done this episodically, but not like they're doing now," Whiting said. "I think the more they operate in space, the more value they probably see on mechanisms to increase safety."

Some space companies and scientists have voiced concern that U.S.-Chinese military and economic tensions could jeopardize a new era of satellite communications and exploration missions in space, including sending astronauts to the moon and later possibly to Mars.

Under NASA's Artemis program, the United States intends in the coming years to return astronauts to the moon for the first time in five decades.

China aims to land its own astronauts in roughly the same lunar region as Artemis by 2030. It also has started deploying constellations of thousands of low Earth-orbiting satellites that will fly near SpaceX's Starlink and Amazon's future Kuiper network. These developments add urgency to the longstanding goal of U.S. space officials to set global standards for space traffic management.

U.S. officials have criticized China's practice of allowing expandable first-stage rocket boosters to fall to Earth in rural China, risking the lives of villagers, and expressed frustration in August when a Chinese rocket stage broke apart in space, creating one of the largest fields of debris in recent history.

Rare talks

The moon rock talks represent a rare instance of contact between the two rivals in recent years.

NASA officials exchanged data with their Chinese counterparts in 2021 to avoid possible collisions between their robotic spacecraft orbiting Mars. NASA and U.S. State Department officials last year held brief talks with their Chinese counterparts regarding China's first lunar sample mission, Chang'e-5, which in 2020 brought to Earth moon rocks from its sunlit side.

The rocks retrieved by Chang'e-6 from the moon's far side may give researchers insight into how the lunar surface could be exploited for resources to sustain long-term astronaut missions and moon bases within the next decade.

Roughly four U.S. universities have applied for access to the Chang'e-6 samples, according to Nelson. Some of them are believed to have been accepted through the science review phase of China's application process, according to Clive Neal, a University of Notre Dame professor who has been involved in efforts to gain access to moon samples obtained by China.

NASA is awaiting Chinese clarification on the terms of the loan agreement, according to two people familiar with the discussions, speaking on condition of anonymity. One of the sources also said some U.S. officials are hesitant about a potential agreement because it could weaken the U.S. posture of toughness toward China.

Nelson said he expects NASA to have to work with the FBI for another certification on national security to Congress to enable any moon rock deliveries to U.S. universities for research.

"When you actually start getting cooperation, you get an enduring space program," Neal said. "Science diplomacy should not be underestimated."