HELSINKI — Pakistan officially joined China’s International Lunar Research Station, the China National Space Administration announced Friday.
Zhang Kejian, CNSA administrator, and Moin ul Haque, the ambassador of Pakistan to China, signed an understanding between China National Space Administration and the Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) Oct. 18 on cooperation on the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS), in keeping with the CNSA statement Oct. 20.
The signing was witnessed by Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Pakistans’s interim prime minister, Anwaar ul Haq Kakar. The agreement will see CNSA and SUPARCO perform extensive cooperation within the demonstration, implementation, operation and application of the ILRS, in addition to training and other areas, in keeping with the statement.
The China-led ILRS project goals to construct a everlasting lunar base within the 2030s, with precursor missions within the 2020s. The initiative is seen as a China-led, parallel project and potential competitor to the NASA-led Artemis Program.
The announcement marks Pakistan’s formal participation within the International Lunar Research Station program. It follows the announcement Oct. 8 that Azerbaijan had joined the project.
CNSA and SUPARCO also signed a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation on space debris and space traffic management.
Pakistan is already involved within the Chang’e-6 lunar sample return mission, attributable to launch in mid-2024. It’s working on the ICUBE-Q cubesat for the mission in cooperation with Shanghai Jiaotong University.
Pakistan has a handful of satellites in orbit, including the Pakistan Distant Sensing Satellite-1 (PRSS-1) built and launched by China in 2018. The experimental, SUPARCO-made PakTES-1A was also aboard the Long March 2C flight. CNSA and SUPARCO have previously been reported to be working towards signing a framework agreement on human spaceflight cooperation.
Russia, Venezuela and South Africa are the opposite known national or space agency-level signatories. The Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization (APSCO), Swiss firm nanoSPACE AG, the Hawaii-based International Lunar Observatory Association (ILOA), and the National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand (NARIT) have also signed joint statements.
China and Russia presented a joint road map for the ILRS in St. Petersburg in June 2021. Beijing has nonetheless since apparently taken the role of lead of the project since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. A Chinese official on the 74th International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Baku, Azerbaijan, earlier this month presented ILRS mission slides showing only Chinese Long March 9 rockets involved in launching infrastructure. The brand new slide omits the Russian super heavy-launch vehicles displayed within the 2021 roadmap.
China is organising a corporation, named ILRSCO, in town of Hefei in Anhui province to coordinate the initiative.
The Deep Space Exploration Laboratory (DSEL), under CNSA, stated earlier this yr that China goals to finish the signing of agreements with space agencies and organizations for founding members of ILRSCO by October.
The U.S. and China are individually and competitively working on respective robotic and crewed lunar plans as a part of a renewed interest within the moon and separate efforts to claim leadership in space exploration. The rivalry can be illustrative of a possible development of discrete international space industry ecosystems and plans.
The U.S. is growing the variety of signatories to its Artemis Accords, the political underpinning of the Artemis lunar program. Last month Germany became the twenty ninth country to enroll.
NASA plans to launch its Artemis 2 crewed circumlunar mission in November 2024. It’ll be followed by Artemis 3, a crewed lunar landing on the lunar south pole, no sooner than late 2025.
China has announced a plan to place a pair of astronauts on the moon before 2030. It’ll launch the Chang’e-7 and Chang’e-8 ILRS precursor missions in 2026 and 2028 to confirm mandatory technologies for the ILRS.