Even the smallest nations can benefit from space technology
SAN JOSÉ — Space shouldn’t be the privileged domain of big countries but a frontier open to all, astronauts and scientists gathered in Costa Rica said on Monday.Even the smallest nations benefit from access to space technology, for example, improving farming and providing better understanding of oceans, weather and climactic changes, they told a news conference at the beginning of a week-long forum."Thirty years ago, when we were in space, we all looked out the window and saw our blue planet," said Bill Nelson, a US senator and former astronaut who participated in a 1986 voyage on the space shuttle Columbia."We did not see political divisions, we did not see religious divisions, we did not see racial divisions. We are in this together." Mr Nelson and other members of that mission were invited to San Jose by another crew member, US-Costa Rican astronaut Franklin Chang, to commemorate the 30th anniversary of that shuttle expedition.Mr Chang, who pioneers plasma research in Costa Rica,...
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