'To boldly go where no man has gone before': Not if you're Chinese, NASA says

Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission members work in the data processing room in Pasadena, California, August 2, 2012.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Chinese scientists barred from NASA Kepler space telescope program conference
• 2011 law prevents NASA funds from being used to collaborate with China, host Chinese visitors at its facilities
• Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman: "The conference itself should not be politicized"
• U.S. Congressman behind law says the reporting on the matter is "riddled with inaccuracies"

China has hit out at NASA for its decision to ban Chinese scholars from an upcoming scientific conference in California, calling it "discriminatory."

The U.S. space agency announced that Chinese nationals would not be permitted to attend the conference for NASA's Kepler space telescope program -- which has been searching for planets outside of the Solar System -- at the Ames Research Center next month on national security grounds.

The decision, based on a law passed in 2011 that prevents NASA funds from being used to collaborate with China or to host Chinese visitors at its facilities, also came under fire from U.S. scientists who called for a boycott of the event.

"In good conscience, I cannot attend a meeting that discriminates in this way. The meeting is about planets located trillions of miles away, with no national security implications," Geoff Marcy, an astronomy professor at the University of California, Berkeley, wrote in an email to the organizers that was published by a number of media outlets.