Steve Durst, a US citizen and space diplomat who bridged divides with China, died last month at his home in California aged 82. He founded the International Lunar Observatory Association to foster collaborations in space exploration. His efforts highlighted the shared excitement of cosmic discovery despite political challenges.
Steve Durst – the US citizen space diplomat who reached out to China
Steve Durst died last month at his home in California aged 82. He had attended a workshop in Chiang Mai, Thailand, shortly before his passing.
Durst founded the non-profit International Lunar Observatory Association (ILOA) and was publishing on China’s astronaut training as early as 1980, when the country’s human space flight ambitions were still little known to the outside world.
His efforts bridged a political divide for the ‘shared excitement of exploring the cosmos’.
Quentin Parker, director of the University of Hong Kong’s Laboratory for Space Research and a key international partner in the project, said: “The telescope will stand as Steve’s final, major space legacy, and it’s both poignant and profoundly fitting.”
“Steve was a proud and patriotic American,” Parker said. “He loved his country, its pioneering spirit and its long history of trailblazing achievements in space.”
But he also invested time, energy and both political and financial capital in building constructive, practical collaborations with China’s space community “at a time when doing so was neither straightforward nor fashionable in some Western circles – and is increasingly difficult today”, Parker added.
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