By Kang Seung-woo
Korea wants to expand cooperation with the United States in the space sector through President Park Geun-hye’s visit to a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) center this week, officials said Tuesday.
Park departed for Washington, D.C. for a four-day trip ― her second official visit to the U.S. ― which will also include a visit to the Pentagon, Thursday, and a summit with U.S. President Barack Obama, Friday.
Park’s visit to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., scheduled for early Thursday, is aimed at discussing measures to advance cooperation in the field of space exploration between the two countries.
“While the U.S. is a global leading country in that area, Korea is still in its infancy,” said Cho Jin-soo, a professor at the School of Mechanical Engineering at Hanyang University.
“So, Korea is expected to seek to promote a partnership with the U.S. through Park’s visit to the NASA center.”
In Park’s initial plan in June, cancelled by the outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), she also planned to visit NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Her NASA trip is drawing extra attention because she will be the nation’s second head of state to visit one of the U.S. space agency’s centers following her father, Park Chung-hee who went to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in 1965.
After the elder Park, who was keen on advancing science and space technologies, visited there, the space center launched an Atlas long-range rocket.
“Although President Park will not tour the same space center that her father visited this time, it is significant that father and daughter, both of whom are incumbent presidents, stepped up efforts to seek U.S. cooperation in space technology,” said a Cheong Wa Dae official.
At the Goddard center, Park plans to have video talks with astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS).
Currently, there are six astronauts aboard the ISS ― two Americans, three Russians and one Japanese.
“The video call shows the U.S. government’s warm welcome to President Park, who is very interested in space,” a source said.