Historic China payload to fly on International Space Station

NanoRacks, a Houston-based aerospace company, will fly the first Chinese commercial payload to the International Space Station. The company will partner with scientists from the Beijing Institute of Technology to study the effects of microgravity on DNA. This comes as no small feat given that China has been accused of hacking U.S. government agencies and pursuing a policy of military space dominance during the two years it took to negotiate the deal. Chinese scientists have been involved in NASA projects in the past, notably the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, which was attached to the International Space Station during the final space shuttle mission. But a 2011 budgetary stipulation known as the Wolf Amendment has precluded NASA from cooperating with China or any Chinese-owned company on new space-related endeavors until the People’s Republic improves its human rights record and reduces espionage efforts against the U.S. More

(Source: Fox News - Aug 20)