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by Marcela Ganea
BUCHAREST, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) – The successful return of China’s Chang’e-5 with precious lunar samples is a real technological and scientific success not only for China, but for the world, Dumitru-Dorin Prunariu, the first Romanian astronaut, he said on Saturday.
“China has enormous potential for lunar exploration … it has made great progress in a very short time, it has set a high and advanced threshold for its space programs and is building its own space station. A country that can do that.” it is definitely exceptional, “said the astronaut, also former chairman of the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space and former chairman of the Romanian Space Agency.
As an expert for the Moon Village Association, a Vienna-based non-governmental platform that promotes international space collaboration, Prunariu called for the creation of a “level playing field for upcoming lunar activities, in order to preserve the peaceful uses of space and sustainable space “exploration.”
“The near future will see a multitude of lunar missions through the efforts of space agencies and commercial stakeholders … however, the current lack of coordination mechanisms for lunar activities is a challenge for future missions,” said.
Prunariu explained that the “Moon Village” concept is a broadly defined conceptual framework that includes planned and potential human activities in space, with the aim of exploring and using the Moon in a sustainable way for scientific, commercial or cultural purposes.
China has enormous potential to work with other countries and agencies on space activities, he said, noting that in 2013 China launched the space information corridor, an initiative under the Belt and Road framework for the peaceful exploration of outer space with developing countries.
This year, during his presences at the Third China Space Conference and the China International Trade Space Online Symposium, he noted that speakers from foreign space agencies and equipment producers expressed their willingness to cooperate with China, Prunariu said.
Prunariu, now 68, conducted an eight-day space mission aboard the Soyuz 40 spacecraft and the Salyut-6 orbital space station in 1981, along with a Russian counterpart and two members of the station team.
He is the 103rd human to fly into outer space. Final product
