Bad decision NASA

[symesie04]

And here i was thinking that in space exploration at least we had entered a new world order of co-operation.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24462775

[Naemeth]

I feel it is a mistake, but also feel that we could potentially be in dangerous discussion territory here so I'll leave it at that.

[baggywrinkle]

In China this has gone down like a fart in a space suit. 

China has moved forward a lot on space technology, whether borrowed/missappropriated/or independantly developed  or not. Surely NASA benefited at some point from CIA/FBI or whatever help..

Haaa hem! why aren't the Russians banned?

Plus this in a conference on Exoplanets and the possibility of alien lifeforms.....the only group proving themselves alien is NASA.

Even during the French Revolution there was still coorespndance between rival nations.

[Zakalwe]

What do you expect them to do? Break the laws of the land?

If there's fault, then it lies with the law creator.

NASA recently had to shut down its Technical Reports Server and strip away loads of the previously freely-availible documents in case that they might break the laws on exporting information. lots of the removed reports contained fascinating on a pet subject of mine (the Apollo program). Again, it's a ridiculous move, but one enforced by the lawmakers, not NASA.

[jezhughes]

Well, we all know who pays the bills at NASA..

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

As has been stated, the NASA acted upon political decision, and as such it is not topic suitable for SGL, however much we lament said political decision. As these discussions tend to be full of sound and fury, but signify (or at least achieve) nothing I am locking the thread, despite the commendable restrained tone the members have shown in the thread to date