by Lu Chunhua

NEW DELHI, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- International cooperation will be a trend in space exploration in the future, said Zhou Jianping, chief designer of China's manned space engineering project who is here attending an meeting on space science.

In an exclusive interview with Xinhua recently, Zhou said the ambitious missions to the moon and mars have become a hot spot in space exploration, which is not only the endless pursuit of the human being, but also the motivation of the scientific development.

In Indian southern city of Hyderabad, the 58th International Astronautical Congress (IAC 2007) is being held from Monday to Friday.

Talking about the international cooperation, Zhou said a lot of countries have expressed willingness to cooperate with China in the fields of space exploration. He added that some countries has cooperated with China in some areas with small scale.

As a delegation head of China's manned space engineering project, Zhou participated in the IAC 2007. At the sideline of this congress, Zhou's delegation talked with the European Space Agency (ESA).

Zhou said that China will implement more space flights in the future, which will provide more opportunities of cooperation with the ESA.

Meanwhile, Zhou's delegation also discussed the possibility of cooperation with Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).

India got impressive achievements in the fields of space exploration, said Zhou, adding that, as two largest developing countries in the world which have got a large stride in space exploration, China and India will have tremendous cooperation chances in the future.