Russia Prefer China Over NASA Project Space Station On The Moon

Russia prioritizes joining China over NASA (Futurism)

JAKARTA - Russia has reportedly collaborated with China in a project to build an international station on the Moon or the International Lunar Scientific Station. The space agencies in the two countries announced the agreement on Tuesday, March 9.

As is known, space has become a hot topic of conversation in the last few months. In fact, Russia had considered participating in the NASA Gateway program to create a space station on the Moon along with a number of other countries.

In fact, Russia prefers partnering with China to build a space station on the Moon. This means that NASA has a competitor in the project. The International Lunar Scientific Station made by Russia and China is a "complex of experimental research facilities built on the surface and / in lunar orbit," Roscosmos said in a statement.

The station will be created to support various studies "with the possibility of long-term unmanned operations with the aim of bringing humans to the Moon," the statement added.

China has chosen its own project rather than working with NASA to put its infrastructure on the Moon. They have also sent the Chang'e rover robot to carry out a number of missions on the Moon, including the first landing on the far side of the Moon and a lunar surface sampling mission last December.

The cooperation was virtually signed by the head of the Chinese Space Agency, Zhang Kejian and the head of the Russian Space Agency, Dmitry Rogozin. This marks the latest development in Beijing's efforts to explore the Moon.

Russia and China Want to Compete with NASA

China and Russia will compete with NASA. Previously, the US Space Agency was prohibited from cooperating with China under a law passed in congress in 2011. On the other hand, Russia, which has a long-standing partnership with NASA for the International Space Station (ISS), is reluctant to extend its partnership with the US space agency, NASA.

NASA has collaborated with the European Space Agency (ESA), Canada and Japan to build a space station on the moon called the Lunar Gateway. NASA had asked Russia to join the project, but Roscosmos rejected it for various considerations last December.

“NASA presented a Russian-American memorandum of understanding to Roscosmos regarding cooperation on the Gateway project. The MoU suggests that Roscosmos commit to providing a crew airlock module, "said a spokesperson for Roscosmos.

"After studying the draft document, the participation of the Russian side on the volume suggested by the US partners was considered impractical."

Russia immediately turned its attention to China's ambitions for the exploration of the Moon project. Tit for tat, Russia made cooperation with China a "top priority" as compiled from The Verge.