Experts said a U.N. plan to upgrade "space weather" forecasts can help the world cope with solar storms that might rack up to $2 trillion in damages if the sun repeated a giant flare of 1859.

Space agencies around the world are working to be ready to coordinate their response to any potentially harmful asteroid headed for Earth. To help focus a world-class planetary defense against threatening near-Earth objects, the space experts are seeking to establish a high-level Mission Planning and Operations Group, or MPOG for short.

The heads of the U.S. and Chinese civil space agencies will exchange visits next year to discuss potential cooperation in space exploration, including human spaceflight, according to a U.S.-China joint statement issued Thursday.

While the United States has a clear interest in alternative energy, India’s needs are arguably even greater. Taylor Dinerman argues that the two countries should work together to develop space-based solar power solutions that can benefit them both.

Faced with ballooning costs and growing delays, ITER — a multi-billion-euro international experiment boldly aiming to prove atomic fusion as a power source — will initially be far less ambitious than physicists had hoped, with the first experiment capable of validating fusion power not likely before the end of 2025.

Space is no longer the domain of the US, Russia, or even China. It’s a global affair. Eleven nations launch satellites, and 50 countries are operating their own satellites. The cold-war concept of a “space race” is yielding to deepening international cooperation. China and the US are even talking about working together.

The US says it is reevaluating possible space cooperation with China, including joint Moon exploration, following Beijing's recent anti-satellite weapon test.

The Chinese National Space Administration recently invited NASA's head to visit China. The hope is that would be the first step in future cooperation between the two agencies, a first date in case "we need to get married some day."

The author argues that U.S. plans to cooperate with India on space technology "risks repeating in India the same errors that previously allowed damaging U.S. space technology transfers to China."

The U.S. is preparing to reverse course on cooperating with China in the area of space technology. Critics worry that this move could inadvertently assist China's military space program.