A Chinese university will send scientific equipment to the International Space Station in collaboration with a private company in the United States, a move that will help explore opportunities for space cooperation between China and the US, a senior Chinese scientist said. "This project underwent a succession of prudent discussions and careful deliberations before we reached the agreement. The US company NanoRacks will send our equipment to the International Space Station to conduct experiments on the space environment's impact on genes. The results will answer some very important questions on life sciences," Deng Yulin, dean of the Beijing Institute of Technology's School of Life Science said.
China is developing electrically propelled satellites and plans to send the first one into space around 2020, according to a senior satellite designer at the China Academy of Space Technology. China will launch a hybrid propulsion communications satellite at the end of next year. The electric propulsion system will also be used in China's future space station.