A 23-page document between Russia and China that spells out details for creating an International Scientific Lunar Station has been ratified by Russia and has now entered into force.
As posted on Russia’s official publication of legal acts, the agreement is between Russia’s State Corporation for Space Activities, Roscosmos, and the Chinese National Space Administration. The agreement was ratified by Russian federal law on June 12 and entered into force on July 18.

Image courtesy U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) in its “2022 Challenges to Security in Space” report.
“The purpose of this Agreement is to create an organizational and legal basis for mutually beneficial cooperation between the Parties in specific areas related to the creation of the International Scientific Lunar Station,” the document explains, as converted by Google Translate.
Valid for 20 years
The intergovernmental agreement is valid for 20 years, to be automatically renewed for subsequent 5-year periods “unless either Party notifies the other Party in writing through diplomatic channels of its intention to terminate this Agreement at least one year before the expiration of the initial term or the expiration of any subsequent period of validity.”
The agreement defines an International Scientific Lunar Station as a “complex of research facilities created with the possible involvement of international partners on the surface and (or) in the orbit of the Moon, intended for multi-purpose research work, including the exploration and use of the Moon, lunar observations, fundamental research experiments and technology testing, with the possibility of long-term unmanned operation with the prospect of ensuring a human presence on the Moon.”

Wu Weiren, chief designer of China’s lunar exploration program.
Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Scientific fields
Cooperation in accordance with the agreement centers on such scientific fields as:
1) lunar topography, geomorphology and geological structure;
2) the fundamental physical properties of the Moon and its internal structure;
3) composition and chemical properties of lunar matter (materials and geochronology);
4) cislunar space;
5) astronomical observations from the surface of the Moon;
6) observation of the Earth from the surface of the Moon;
7) biological and medical experiments on the surface of the Moon;
8) use of lunar resources (under the surface) and (or) in lunar orbit.
The cooperation between the countries is to be done within the framework of a Russian-Chinese Joint Data Center for Lunar and Deep Space Research.
Three phase agenda
Phase 1 of the agenda involves planned national missions by both Russian and Chinese lunar missions and “verification of technology to ensure a safe, high-precision soft landing on the lunar surface.”
Phase 2 is to be carried out in two stages.
— establishment of a control center to ensure the delivery of bulk cargo and a safe, high-precision soft landing on the lunar surface
— comprehensive work to complete the creation of a multinational logistics system, the design and creation of orbital modules (equipment) and modules (equipment) located on the surface of the Moon for power supply, communications, provision of transport services. Also, research, study and possible use of resources present on the surface (below the surface) and/or orbit of the Moon, and other potentially common technologies.
Phase 3 is study and development of the Moon, verification of technologies, and assistance to international partners in landing a human on the Moon using the completed multicast satellite system.