It's another giant leap for mankind that China has become the third nation with the capability to send people to space.

China's space program already has conducted two manned missions, and it plans to put a three-man crew into space late this year. Since November, China's Chang'e I satellite has orbited the moon, gathering data on the lunar surface and environment. Unfortunately, the Bush administration has reined in any ambitious efforts at cooperation with China in space. In discussing the Chinese program, a senior NASA official, speaking on background, stated, "There are still lots of differing opinions in Washington about whether we are going too slow or too fast." Legitimate concern about China's military space efforts has led the administration to take petty actions against the Chinese civil program, and as a result, the United States is losing out to other space programs.

The U.S., for example, refused to help on the Chang'e mission. The United States' space communications network — consisting of sites in California, Australia and Spain — was not made available for the mission, leaving the European Space Agency to offer its deep-space network to China for communicating with the satellite. Grateful Chinese officials offered to share the data gleaned from the Chang'e mission with the Europeans.

The United States also seems to be pursuing a policy of not allowing Chinese space travelers entry to ambitious and important joint projects, such as the International Space Station.

The United States has reason to mistrust Chinese intentions in outer space. The successful demonstration of a satellite-killer missile a year ago created a debris field of more than 40,000 pieces that will orbit Earth for years. This abuse of the precious resource of near-Earth space demonstrated the belligerence of China's high-frontier military planners. But there is still plenty of room for cooperation, and the space station is one such area. The United States, which is committed to the troubled station and scrambling to prepare for a post-shuttle future, must not miss this opportunity.

This is a mistake we fortunately avoided in the 1990s, during the debate about allowing Russia access to what was then called Space Station Freedom. Opponents spoke of technology-transfer concerns, unsure political motives and the supposed cost of including Russia in the space station program. The same issues are being raised regarding China.

But the Clinton administration decided to cooperate with Russia, and it was a good thing it did. When U.S. space shuttles — then and now NASA's only means of access to the space station — were grounded after the Columbia disaster, Russian vehicles provided a lifeline to the space station program to an extent never anticipated. Without Russian help, the grounding of the shuttles could have meant that billions of dollars of space station hardware would have been lost, and along with it, perhaps, the U.S. manned space program. Now, the United States is fortunate that China could be a similar partner.

Chinese participation could eliminate our total dependence on Russia for manned access to the space station. That will begin just two years from now; the shuttles are set to be retired by 2010. By creating more manned transportation options to low-Earth orbit, cooperation also may help us in our goal to return to the moon. And it would provide a forum for frank discussions on strategic space issues — such as China's launch of its satellite killer last year. Perhaps most important, the United States would gain another space partner instead of a competitor.

NASA Administrator Michael Griffin — who understands a thing or two about technology development — startled the space industry in September when he predicted that China would get to the moon before NASA returns. Better that it pursue that goal in a program that helps the U.S. space program as well.

We have strong financial motives as well. The $90 billion cost of the space station program is still rising. If someone else wants to help pay, we should let 'em!

Do the Chinese want to join? China's steps so far, such as buying the same space station docking system used by the United States and Russia, indicate it does. More recently, Vice Minister of Science and Technology Li Xueyong said that "China sincerely wants to cooperate with the United States ... and join the International Space Station project that has already involved 16 nations."

Including China in the largest cooperative technical program on — or off — the planet is not just a political gimmick. It could solve substantial issues in space operations. Allowing China to join other nations in the space station would give the Bush administration a smart foreign-policy legacy in its waning months.

Jeffrey Manber was chief executive of MirCorp, which leased the Russian space station Mir on a commercial basis. He wrote this commentary for the Los Angeles Times.