Russia, China May Sign Agreement On Lunar Station By End Of 2022 - Chinese Space Agency

Russia and China are intensively engaged in negotiations on the creation of the International Lunar Research Station and may sign an intergovernmental agreement before the end of this year, Vice Administrator of China National Space Administration Wu Yanhua said on Friday

BEIJING (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th January, 2022) Russia and China are intensively engaged in negotiations on the creation of the International Lunar Research Station and may sign an intergovernmental agreement before the end of this year, Vice Administrator of China National Space Administration Wu Yanhua said on Friday.

"We are intensively engaged in negotiations and have basically reached a consensus. The agreement is quite possible to be signed as soon as possible this year," Wu said during a press conference.

Earlier this week, Russian Ambassador to China Andrey Denisov said that the agreement on the creation of the station "is almost ready and will be signed soon enough."

The International Lunar Science Station will represent a complex of experimental research facilities on the surface and in orbit of the Moon.

It will be designed to carry out multidisciplinary research activities.

The station will be constructed in three stages. During the first one from 2026 to 2030, the sides are set to begin joint operations, deliver lunar soil samples to Earth and test technologies of the station's command center. After that, both countries will deploy systems responsible for energy, communications and delivery of equipment to orbit and the Moon. The second stage will last from 2031 to 2035 with both expected to fully put the station in service during the third stage.

The station will be placed either in the Amundsen crater in the southern part of the Moon, or in the area of the Marius Hills in Oceanus Procellarum, or in the Aristarchus crater. The construction area will be finally chosen before 2025.