Chinese journalists banned from shuttle launch.

Here's a story that went completely under my radar.  The May 16th launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavor was open to journalists of all nations...except for those from China.  Chinese journalists who tried to cover the launch weren't allowed in the Kennedy Space Center, and were barred from NASA's press conferences.  Why the hostility?  Language was slipped into last month's 2011 federal spending bill that banned NASA from hosting any Chinese official or collaborating in any way with a Chinese government entity.  Since these journalists work for Xinhua, the Chinese state-run media, that put them on the no-go list.

What a travesty.  I understand that the congressman responsible for this, Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA), is concerned about Chinese human rights violations.  However, limiting NASA's ability to collaborate with international space partners is clearly not the answer.  Keeping Chinese journalists from filming America's shuttle launches isn't going to free political prisoners, or bring sweeping democratic reforms.  At best, all this will do is hamper our efforts to bring China into the fold of space faring nations, slowing humanity's inevitable ascent into the Cosmos.  At worst, this will drive the Chinese space program further to the fringes, giving them a pretext to militarize space, and isolating them from the free world.

This is, unfortunately, a symptom of a larger problem.  The greater autonomy private industry has with regards to space exploration, the tighter congress's grip on NASA seems to become.  Recently, we've seen congress micromanage NASA's budget to a ridiculous level, dictate specific rocket designs, and now, ban NASA's scientists from collaborating with their colleagues in China.

Of course, the answer isn't limiting private industry's role in space.  The government should encourage private firms to get into space exploration in every way possible.  However, NASA's role cannot be downplayed or ignored.  And without a clear, specific vision for space, it seems the government has no issue with leaving NASA's fate up to a few malcontents in congress.  As long as we allow these petty political moves to get in the way of real science, shams like the banning of journalists will continue, unabated.

-DJP