National Aeronautics and Space Administration Administrator Michael Griffin is in China participating in a five-day visit to speak with department administrators from the Chinese space program. Griffin is the most senior NASA official to visit China to discuss cooperation between NASA and the Chinese space agency. China is only the third country, after the United States and Russia, to send a manned spacecraft into orbit, which it did in 2003. The European Space Agency, Pakistan, France and Iran currently have cooperative space projects with China.

Griffin is scheduled to visit Shanghai and Beijing before leaving the country on Thursday. Griffin was scheduled to visit a rocket launch facility in the Gobi desert, but it “didn't work out.” He will meet with the minister of science and technology and deliver a speech at the Chinese Academy of Sciences tomorrow.

Due to political insecurities within both nations, a possible bilateral space agreement has been difficult to arrange. The United States is most concerned with the secretive Chinese space program that is known to have military involvement. The Chinese Foreign Minister recently spoke about the nation's involvement and collaboration with the United States, Russia, Japan and space efforts with other nations.