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Chinese Research Will Fly on the International Space Station for the First Time

A private US company has agreed to take a Chinese DNA experiment to the ISS next year.
Image: NASA

The International Space Station is a bit like an orbiting United Nations composed of 16 different countries. But it has yet to welcome China into its ranks. That could be set to change, as a private US company has just negotiated the flight of the first Chinese experiment aboard the ISS.

Houston-based private company NanoRacks, which helps scientists and businesses conduct research aboard the ISS, counts companies like private whisky distillery Ardbeg among its clientele. Now it's adding a Chinese Institute of Technology to its list of collaborators.

According to a report by the Houston Chronicle, Jeffrey Manber, a space entrepreneur and managing director at NanoRacks, negotiated the agreement to fly Professor Yulin Deng's immune system research experiment aboard the ISS in 2016. The experiment, which is dubbed DNA Mismatching During PCR Reaction Exposed to Space Environment, will examine the effects of space on the immune system. After returning from talks with the Beijing Institute of Technology where Deng works, Manber said that the move was "symbolic" and "meaningful."

Congress bans NASA from cooperating scientifically with Communist China. But NanoRacks consulted with NASA and the Obama Administration to make sure that the joint venture complied with the 2011 spending bill amendment drawn up by Republican legislator Frank Wolf, which curtails NASA's cooperation with any Chinese space programs.

The 2016 venture between NanoRacks and the Beijing Institute of Technology will allow Deng to continue his research using NanoRacks' commercial hardware onboard the ISS. NanoRacks will deliver the Chinese experiment aboard the US side of the ISS via a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, then give the results back to the Chinese researchers. The venture is not a collaboration between NASA and China.

According to NanoRacks, this experiment holds scientific value to the international research community. The research results will be published in Western research publications, and there will be no hardware or technology transfer from the US to China.