The latch has fallen. Russia and China join forces. They have just signed a contract - o2

When Russia and China revealed the plans for a joint lunar space station some time ago, they were not foretold of a bright future.

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It is China’s largest international space cooperation project to date. CNSA also announced that they are “open to cooperation with all interested countries and international partners”.

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On October 1, Russia’s first lunar lander since 1976, Luna 25, will take off. On this occasion, the president of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, invited the head of the CNSA, Zhang Kejian, to Moscow. Additionally, this year the Russians are celebrating the 60th anniversary of the first manned space flight. Yuri Gagarin flew into space in April 1961. Two years later, the first woman, also Russian, Valentina Tereshkova, went there.

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Chen Lan, a freelance analyst specializing in the Chinese space program, said a shared lunar space station was “a big deal.”

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This will be the largest international space cooperation project for China, so it is significant, admits the scientist.

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For Russia, however, this project seems to be so important also for another reason. Roscosmos in 2020 lost its monopoly on manned flights to the International Space Station (ISS) after the first the successful mission of the American company SpaceX. Cooperation with China may make the Russians count again in this space race.

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