The program for creating a Russian-Chinese station on an Earth satellite involves three main stages. The implementation of the first of them should begin this year.
The program of the Russian-Chinese station on the moon takes shape. As it became known, it involves several main stages, the first of which will begin very soon.
The main milestones of the program were announced at a presentation shown on Saturday, at the Chinese Space Day in Nanjing, China.
The first stage is planned to be implemented by 2025. It will include launches to the Moon of the Russian landing stations "Luna-25" and "Luna-27", as well as the orbital "Luna-26". On the Chinese side, the landing stations "Chang'e-6" and "Chang'e-7"are presented. If everything remains unchanged, the "Moon-25" will be launched in 2021, and the "Moon-27" can go on the road in 2025. The Chinese Chang'e-6 ,as it became known recently, will begin its mission in 2024. The data obtained by the above-mentioned devices will allow us to determine the construction site of the station in the area of the south pole of the Moon.
Luna-25
Image source: wikipedia
They want to implement the second stage from 2026 to 2030. The Russian landing station Luna-28 (2027) and the Chinese Chang'e-8 are to be sent to the Moon. This stage will mark the actual start of the construction of the station.
As for the third stage, it is planned to be implemented from 2030 to 2035. The details were not reported, but it is worth saying that by this time, China hopes to test launch a new super-heavy launch vehicle Long March 9, which will give it fundamentally new opportunities in the field of space exploration. This also applies to manned flights to the moon.
In addition to the super-heavy rocket, the Celestial Empire hopes to put into operation a new spacecraft. It was successfully tested a year ago.
China's next-generation manned spacecraft
Image source: weibo
The decision to create a station on the moon has become one of the main events for the Russian and Chinese space industries in recent years. Recently, the PRC confirmed its interest in the project, noting that it should be an important contribution to the long-term UN program aimed at stimulating human activities in space.
For Russia, the decision to build a lunar base together with China was preceded by a conflict with the West over the project of a promising lunar orbital station Gateway, an active participant in which the country was seen a few years ago. Note that the Gateway itself is part of the ambitious Artemis program, which involves landing astronauts on the surface of the satellite.
