Former chief of NASA urges lifting China ban

There is both optimism and a need for the United States to resume cooperation with China in space exploration, a veteran astronaut and former NASA administrator said days after the Chinese spacecraft Chang'e 4 made a historic soft-landing on the far side of the moon on Jan 2.

"China should feel very proud of having accomplished this. Anytime you can do something that has not been done before, it's a reason for excitement and celebration," said Charles F. Bolden, chief of the space agency from July 2009 to January 2017.

Congressional prohibitions on space cooperation with China - as stipulated by the 2011 Wolf Amendment to NASA appropriations bills - is a "significant legal constraint" and "hindrance" that should be relaxed or reversed, Bolden said.