Europe is not sending astronauts to China’s space station, at least not in the near future despite Europe having prepared astronauts for potential visits to China’s Tiangong space station.
That’s according to the director general of European Space station. The agency manages Europe’s space program.
The agency has been training its astronauts with their Chinese counterparts. In 2017, it said the goal was to fly European astronauts on the Chinese space station from 2022.
The current international space station is slated to retire in 2030. It involves five members, the U.S., Russia, Japan, Europe, and Canada, but Russia is going to pull out in 2024 to set up its own space station.
China has invited many countries to join research activities in its space station. The U.S. did not sign on.
Beijing said the space station would host scientific projects from seventeen nations, including Switzerland, Poland, Germany, and Italy.