NEW PATHWAY
"Commercial is a pathway that is good for opening new doors. It has no symbolism, no 'flags' it is based on requirements and it can be structured to meet the concerns of all parties. I believe commercial is the pathway forward for greater cooperation with Chinese companies and educational organizations," Jeffrey Manber, CEO of NanoRacks, told Xinhua in an email.
Many space-policy experts said they viewed the agreement as a significant step in shaping possible future joint work by the two space-faring nations.
"This is an aerospace business in Florida, but it also means a new international partnership with the Chinese university and research institute," Tony Gannon, director of business development at Space Florida, told Xinhua.
"It shows growing trends what we call commercial space, while not by just federal agencies and government sending up science, but indeed universities and commercial partnerships also are seeking answers using micro gravity as a method to discover the truth of science and indeed further mankind's efforts in research," Gannon said.
OBEYING LAWS
Over the past few years, a U.S. law, known as the Wolf amendment, has prohibited NASA and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) from cooperating with China on space activities.
In the 2011 United States federal budget, U.S. Republican Congressman Frank Wolf inserted a clause prohibiting NASA and the OSTP from any joint scientific activity with China for the remainder of the 2011 fiscal year.
Wolf retired in January 2015, but the law is still in effect today.
However, the NanoRacks deal is a commercial arrangement, which is considered legal. The company "worked hard to understand first why there is a reluctance on the part of some in America to work with the Chinese and to meet those objections, rather than fight those objections," Manber said.
"We kept all this in mind in moving forward. We received cooperation from the White House and from Congress and from members of both political parties," he said.
"NASA complied with all legal requirements to notify the Congress of this activity, and all of the ISS partners approved the inclusion of the experiment," NASA spokesperson Kathryn Hambleton told Xinhua in an email.
