Article Posted on : - Aug 17, 2010

International Space Station

MOSCOW (BNS): The number of participants in the International Space Station programme may be increased and the involvement of India and China will be mutually beneficial, said ISS flight engineer Fiodor Urchikhin.

Answering a question from the ISS Mail Box - a project by Memorial Space Museum - Urchikhin said, the number of ISS programme participants may be enlarged by adding China and India.

"I am sure that partnership with China and India would be mutually beneficial in the programme”, he was quoted as saying by Interfax AVN.

“Chinese achievements in human space missions are well-known. A Chinese module in the ISS? It is not a fantasy, provided that all parties agree with is", Yurchikhin said, adding, “But I am against thoughtless involvement - interesting ideas, technologies shall be involved in the programme.”

The space station is primarily a research laboratory. Countries like USA, Russia, Canada, Japan, Brazil, and 11 member nations of ESA (Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom) are involve in the ISS programme.