As their individual spacecraft led to Mars, China and the U.S. held consultations earlier this season at a somewhat unusual series of exchanges between the competitions

BEIJING — because their individual spacecraft led to Mars, China and the U.S. held consultations earlier this season at a somewhat unusual chain of trades between the opponents.

China’s National Space Agency affirmed Wednesday it had working-level communications and meetings with NASA from January to March”to guarantee the airport security” of the craft.

U.S. law prohibits almost all connections between NASA and China over worries about tech theft and the close, military-backed character of China’s space program.

However, exceptions could be made if NASA can certify to Congress that it’s protections in place to protect information, behaving NASA Administrator Steve Jurczyk explained during a video interview a week.

Jurczyk explained the latest market was about China supplying orbital and other information because of its Mars mission in order that they could assess the chance of collision. “We have targeted involvement together,” he explained.

His remarks were reported from the SpaceNews site.

Jurczyk added it will be around the Biden government and Congress to establish whether and how the U.S. participates with China on non-military space actions as part of the country’s overall China plan.

“As the government and Congress sets those coverages, we look ahead to how we could contribute in regard to civil distance dialogue and cooperation with China,” he explained.

The region around Mars has come to be somewhat more crowded this season with the coming of spacecraft in the U.S., China and also the U.A.E.

The U.A.E. craft is simply orbiting and won’t try to land.