Russia turns away from NASA, says it will work with China on moon base

Officials from the Chinese and Russian space agencies on Tuesday signed an agreement to work together to build a “scientific” station on the Moon.

Under a memorandum of understanding, the two countries will cooperate in establishing an “International Lunar Science Station” and plan to invite other countries to participate. The agreement was signed by Zhang Kejian, director of the China National Space Administration, and Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Russian space company Roscosmos. The deal was announced by Roscosmos.

Details on the project were quite scarce, only specifying that the countries would work together to create research facilities on the surface and / or orbit around the moon. The goal was both to establish long-term unmanned facilities on the moon and to build the capacity of a human presence there.

China has already revealed its ambitions to build an international lunar station at the moon’s south pole, starting with robotic missions and then short-term human missions in the early 2030s. The country plans to establish a human presence. long term at the South Pole – which is said to contain vast reserves of water ice – over the period 2036 to 2045. These plans were initially discussed at the meeting of the Subcommittee of the Committee on Peaceful Countries. Uses of outer space last year, and reported by Space News.

Previously, the European Space Agency has also expressed interest in partnering with China for future missions to the Moon.

Artemis chords

The most recent announcement comes after the United States, under the leadership of new President Joe Biden, confirmed that it will continue with the Artemis plan to return NASA astronauts, and those of partner agencies, to the Moon in the 2020s. NASA also wants to establish a lunar base and assess the viability of water resources at the South Pole.

As part of this exploration plan, NASA established the “Artemis Agreements”, a series of bilateral agreements with space agencies from other countries that wish to join the Artemis program. Essentially, partner countries should agree on 10 basic standards as part of their space activities, such as transparent operation and dissemination of scientific data. Several countries have already signed, and more are expected to follow.

Russia was visibly absent from the signing of these agreements. The nation has worked successfully with the United States and other international partners for more than two decades on the construction and operation of the International Space Station in low Earth orbit. However, Rogozin criticized the Artemis Accords as being too “US-centric”.

This latest Russia-China deal suggests that the enduring relationship that NASA and Roscosmos have enjoyed for decades could reach a breaking point in deep space exploration. And while the term “space race” is certainly a cliché, perhaps that is what NASA and its partners end up with with China and Russia when it comes to returning to the moon.