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China, Russia may ink lunar station deal by yearend — CNSA

It was added that in fact, the parties had reached a consensus

BEIJING, January 28. /TASS/. Russia and China may sign an inter-governmental agreement on cooperation in creating a lunar station by the end of this year, Deputy Head of China National Space Administration (CNSA) Wu Yanhua announced on Friday.

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Russia, China set to sign lunar station deal soon — envoy

"Currently, inter-governmental consultations between China and Russia on an agreement on creating an International Scientific Lunar Station are in full swing," he told a press conference. "Basically, the sides have reached a consensus. It is quite likely that it may be signed as soon as possible this year," Wu Yanhua said.

Russia’s Ambassador to China Andrey Denisov said on January 25 that a Russia-China inter-governmental agreement on cooperation in creating a lunar station was practically ready and could be signed soon.

Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos and China National Space Administration unveiled a roadmap of an international scientific lunar station at the Global Space Exploration Conference 2021 (GLEX 2021) in St. Petersburg in June 2021.

Under the roadmap, the construction of the lunar station is expected to be completed by 2035. Two missions are planned in 2026-2030 to test the technologies of landing and cargo delivery and the transportation of lunar soil samples to Earth. The plans envisage developing infrastructure in orbit and on the Moon’s surface in 2031-2035, in particular, communications systems, electric power, research, and other equipment.

Pursuant to the roadmap, the station’s transport infrastructure will include research and service lunar rovers and also a jumping robot. The participating sides are also planning to equip the station with several smart mini-rovers to explore the surface of the Earth’s natural satellite.

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