Dec 23, 2008

Michael Braukus Headquarters, Washington 202-669-1886 michael j braukus@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

-end-

To subscribe to the list, send a message to: hqnews-subscribe@mediaservices nasa gov To remove your address from the list, send a message to: hqnews-unsubscribe@mediaservices nasa gov

The following information is a reminder of your current mailing list subscription:

You are subscribed to the following list: [list_name]

using the following email: example@example.com

You may automatically unsubscribe from this list at any time by visiting the following URL:

http://www aus-city com/cgi-bin/dada/plugins/dada_bridge pl/u/[list]/

If the above URL is inoperable, make sure that you have copied the entire address Some mail readers will wrap a long URL and thus break this automatic unsubscribe mechanism

You may also change your subscription by visiting this list's main screen:

<[program_url]/list/[list]>

If you're still having trouble, please contact the list owner at:

<mailto:[list_owner_email]>

The following physical address is associated with this mailing list:

[physical_address]