Russia and China agree to build a common lunar space station

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The leaders of the respective space agencies of the two countries have signed a memorandum of understanding on behalf of their national governments.

“China and Russia will use their experience in space science, research and development, as well as the use of space equipment and space technology to jointly develop a roadmap for the construction of an International Monthly Scientific Research Station (ILRS),” China Space said the agency.

A statement from the Russian space agency Roscosmos said the two organizations intend to “promote cooperation with a view to creating an ILRS with open access for all interested countries and international partners, with a view to strengthening cooperation in exploring and using space for peaceful purposes in the interest of all mankind. “

The lunar space station will be “a complex of experimental and research facilities” created on the moon’s surface and / or the moon’s orbit, according to the Roscosmos statement. The facilities will be designed for a range of multidisciplinary research, including “testing technologies with the possibility of a long-term unmanned operation with a view to human presence on the moon.”

China and Russia will now work on a roadmap on how to design, develop and operate the station and plan to “present it to the global space community,” Roscosmos said.

The two countries have also signed agreements to set up a data center to explore the moon and deep space together. They plan to cooperate in the future with China’s Chang’e-7 and Russia’s 27th Moon missions, both of which aim to monitor the lunar south pole.

Only two countries have collected rocks from the moon. For China, this is just the beginning
Russia was a founding partner of the International Space Station (ISS), along with the United States and other contributing nations and space agencies. The orbiting scientific laboratory marked the 20th anniversary of continuous human occupation in November last year. To date, the ISS remains the only operational and permanently inhabited space station of mankind. Unlike Russia, however, China is not involved in ISS initiatives, due in part to US federal legislation banning cooperation with Beijing on space projects.
Russia is looking back at its space program in the Soviet Union, which in 1957 became the first country to launch a satellite – Sputnik 1 – from Earth’s gravitational grip.

Against the backdrop of a Cold War space race with the United States, the Soviets in 1960 sent the first living creatures into orbit back and forth, including the space dogs, Belka and Strelka. Then, in 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin threw the Americans into space.

However, in recent years, Russia has struggled to replicate the early success of the space program, experiencing a number of failures, including failures to launch probes amid funding cuts and alleged corruption.

China delayed the space race – it did not send its first satellite into orbit until 1970, when the United States had already landed an astronaut on the moon – but it arrived quickly.

Backed by billions of dollars in government investment, China has rapidly accelerated its space program over the past decade, launching space labs and satellites.

In 2019, China became the first country to send an unmanned rover to the far side of the month. In July 2020, China launched its first unmanned mission to Mars – the Tianwen-1 spacecraft, which entered the orbit of the red planet in February this year. The next step will be the landing of a rover on the surface, which is expected to come in May or June.

And in December 2020, China’s unmanned Chang’e mission brought lunar samples back to Earth – making it only the third country to successfully collect rocks from the moon.

Plans are also underway to send astronauts to the moon by 2030. If successful, China will only become the second country after the United States to put a citizen on the moon.

CNN’s Anna Chernova contributed to the report.

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