The United States should include China in its human space projects or face being left out of new ventures to send people beyond the International Space Station, NASA chief Charles Bolden said on Monday.

NASA has been effectively banned by Congress from any bilateral cooperation with China since 2011, and China has not been allowed to join the 15-nation collaborative International Space Station project, but Bolden said working China will be necessary in the future.

Bolden gave such remarks at the International Astronautical Congress on Monday, believing this state of affairs is temporary.

"The reason I think that where we are today is temporary is because of a practical statement that we will find ourselves on the outside looking in, because everybody ... who has any hope of a human spaceflight program ... will go to whoever will fly their people,” Bolden said.

China’s own representative, Xu Dazhe, the head of the body which oversees the country’s space activities, welcomed Bolden’s words, saying, "China has no difficulties in our cooperation policies with other agencies.”

China is the third country that has sent people in orbit. In addition to developing its own space station - so far at the prototype stage - , China has launched a series of robotic spacecraft to the moon. The last probe included a lander that touched down in December 2013.

Xu also said that China planned to launch a lunar sample return mission in 2017 and was looking for partners for a 2019 robotic excursion to the far side of the moon.