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China likely to lead space science research in future

Xinhua, January 18, 2011

Bonnet said China's successfully holding the 36th Scientific Assembly of the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) of the International Council for Science in 2006 was another landmark of China's progress in space science.

Moreover, in 2010 Wu Ji, together with Robert Lin from the United States, were elected as the COSPAR vice-presidents.

Bonnet was recently in Beijing to receive the International Science and Technology Cooperation Award of the People's Republic of China, among this year's five winners of this award, which was presented by China's State Council Friday to foreign scientists for their undertakings in science and technology cooperation with China.

Bonnet was awarded for his outstanding contribution in pushing forward the cooperation in space science between Europe and China.

From the early 1990s, when he was the director of the scientific programme of the European Space Agency (ESA), he actively supported Chinese scientists in joining the ESA's Cluster Mission, which aimed to launch satellites to observe the magnetic fields of the Earth.

Bonnet said that at the very beginning, his European research fellows were quite suspicious about cooperation with China.

However, the two sides had won their mutual trust and respect along the way because Chinese scientists had convinced their European partners with their commitments and serious attitudes about their research, he said.

China's proposal concerned launching two satellites into space as its Double Star Mission, and share the data with the four Cluster satellites to form a six-point measurement of the Earth's magnetic fields.

The Double Star Mission is among the winners of this year's State First Grade Award of Scientific and Technological Progress, which was also presented Friday by the State Council.