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| Russia and China are cooperating to set up an international research station on the moon |
The space agencies said Russia and China signed an agreement to build an International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) orbiting the moon.
Russia has considered participating in NASA's "Gateway Project", a competitive lunar space station that will be built by a coalition of other countries over the next decade.
Roscosmos said in a statement: The International Lunar Research Station, under study by Russia and China, is a group of experimental research facilities that have been established on the surface of the moon or in its orbit.
The statement said that the "International Lunar Research Station" aims to support various research experiments, including possible long-range unmanned operations and human activities that may exist on the surface of the moon.
Like NASA, China has sought international support for its plan to put infrastructure on the surface of the Moon and has sent several robotic missions to the moon, including the first landing on the far side of the Moon, carried out in December. Quick example of an extraction task. .
The de facto signing of the Lunar Station Agreement between Director of the China Space Administration Zhang Kejian and the President of Russian Space Romitin is Beijing's latest lunar exploration effort with competitors such as NASA that has been excluded from legal cooperation with China. Congress approved. In 2011.
Russia, which has worked with NASA on the International Space Station for decades, is reluctant to extend its space alliance with the United States to the Moon.
NASA has intensified its efforts as part of the Artemis plan to return astronauts to the moon under the leadership of the Trump administration.
Part of that effort is taking the lead in developing a multilateral agreement called the Armis Agreement that seeks to set standards for behavior in space.
So far, nine other countries have signed the Artemis Agreement, but after the United States last year tried to exclude Moscow from the initial negotiations on the agreement, Russia was not a part of it.
NASA has signed agreements with the European Space Agency, Japan and Canada to work on the lunar channel for the planned Lunar Orbital Station.
A spokesman for the Russian space agency Roskosmos said last December that NASA had asked Russia to help build the station, but Moscow believed that NASA's request to Russia to provide airlocks for doors was unrealistic.
The spokesman said: NASA has submitted a Russian-American memorandum of understanding to the Russian space agency Roscosmos on cooperation in the portal project. The memorandum of understanding states that Roscosmos has committed to providing airlocks for the crew, and after studying the draft document, it will be added to the size of the Russian square, which is considered impractical.
Russia quickly turned its attention to China's lunar ambitions. The spokesman said: Cooperation with China has become one of Russia's most important priorities over the past year.
The agreement between Russia and China emphasizes the joint development of the International Lunar Research Station, which requires planning, clarification, design, development, implementation and operation of the scientific research station project, including the promotion of the project in the international space community.
Russia's specific technological contributions are not yet clear. Despite reduced domestic budgets, Russian military and civilian space agencies continue to invest in new launch infrastructure.
Russia's space budget is ranked second in the world after the United States and China.
The Chinese Space Research Center said: China has also held talks with the French Space Agency to review the status of space cooperation between the two countries.