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China presents sample from moon's far side

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Countries talk space cooperation at annual summit

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Russian space agency not attending

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NASA chief to promote post-ISS plans

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IAC draws its highest-ever number of technical papers

(Recasts with Chinese lunar sample presentation)

By Joey Roulette, Giulia Segreti and Tim Hepher

MILAN, Oct 14 (Reuters) - China unveiled a rock sample

from the moon's far side to a space summit overshadowed by

shifting political and commercial rivalries on Monday, with

traditional space power Russia absent from the Milan gathering

amid tensions with the West.

The International Astronautical Congress (IAC) has been a

venue since 1950 for scientists, engineers, companies and

politicians of space-faring nations to discuss cooperation, even

during the Cold War.

At the latest edition in Milan, the China National Space

Administration showcased a rock sample that its Chang'e 6 rover

fetched from the moon's far side - the first such exploit and

widely seen as evidence of Beijing's rising space-power status.

A Chinese official whisked a red blanket off a glass case

containing the tiny lunar fragment at a ceremony witnessed by

space agency chiefs of Europe, the United States, Japan and

elsewhere.

For its part, NASA was displaying rocks that its OSIRIS-REx

spacecraft retrieved from the Bennu asteroid in 2023.

"This is the most exciting time in space since the Apollo

era in the 1960s," Clay Mowry, president of the 77-nation

International Astronautical Federation, the non-profit that

organises the annual congress, told Reuters.

Talks were expected to touch heavily on lunar exploration,

NASA's growing coalition under its Artemis moon programme and

Europe's pressing need for more sovereign access to space.

A record 7,197 technical abstracts have been submitted.

NASA administrator Bill Nelson was expected to use the event

to rally support for plans to tap private companies to replace

the ageing International Space Station after its 2030

retirement.

The orbiting science laboratory, now more than two decades

old, has been a symbol of space diplomacy led primarily by the

U.S. and Russia, despite conflicts on Earth.

Russia's space agency Roscosmos, a storied power now

isolated from the West after Moscow's 2022 invasion of Ukraine,

has no official presence at this year's event, however.

NASA has been investing billions of dollars in its Artemis

moonshot but is also keen on maintaining a presence in low-Earth

orbit to compete with China's Tiangong space station, which has

continuously housed Chinese astronauts for three years.

The U.S. and China are also racing to land the first humans

on the moon since the last American Apollo mission in 1972. Both

are aggressively courting partner countries and leaning heavily

on private companies for their moon programmes, shaping the

space objectives of smaller space agencies.

EUROPE'S PRIORITIES

The Oct 14-18 event is the largest in the space calendar and

comes as host nation Italy draws up a framework establishing

local rules for private investment. It wants similar clarity at

a European level, officials said.

A surge in space traffic led by fast-growing satellite

constellations like Starlink has raised concerns about space

debris collisions and a growing field of other space junk.

"These rules give the national ecosystem guidance on how

to reach our objectives and grant the use of space in a

sustainable and useful way," Italy's Industry Minister Adolfo

Urso said.

Musk's SpaceX is relied upon by much of the Western world

for accessing space, driving countries - including the U.S. - to

encourage new space upstarts that can offer more affordable

rockets. SpaceX's growing Starlink internet network has made the

company the world's largest satellite operator.

After a year-long hiatus, Europe regained uncrewed access to

orbit with the test flight of its Ariane 6 launcher in July.

Europe's satellite manufacturing industry is facing growing

pressures, however, as a once-thriving market for its large,

bespoke geostationary satellites shifts towards lower orbit.

Italy's Leonardo, one of the hosts of the

week-long event, has called for a new strategy for the space

sector embracing its French joint venture partner Thales

and their main rival in satellite manufacturing,

Airbus.

Industry sources say the three companies are involved in

preliminary talks about combining their satellite activities,

but much will depend on the attitude of a new European

Commission, which blocked past efforts to forge a single player.

(Editing by Jamie Freed and Christina Fincher)