Special to CosmicTribune.com, July 10, 2024

Geostrategy-Direct

By Richard Fisher

The China-led International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) coalition to establish permanent Moon bases in the 2030s has gained new members in recent months: Nicaragua and Thailand in April; Serbia in May; and on July 3 Kazakhstan became the 12th member state of the ILRS.

Though it did not specifically mention the ILRS, a joint China-Kazakhstan statement issued on July 3, from a China-Kazakhstan summit held in conjunction with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, stated:

“The two sides support exchanges and cooperation between the two countries’ aerospace agencies and enterprises in the peaceful use of outer space, promote mutually beneficial cooperation in the moon and deep space, and reception and exchange of remote sensing data, and explore the possibility of commercial use of the two sides’ space launch sites.”

It is the later mention of “explore the possibility of commercial use of the two sides’ space launch sites” that is most important.

Kazakhstan hosts the historic Baikonur Cosmodrome, founded by former Soviet Union in 1955 and the launch site for world’s first satellite Sputnik-1 in October 1957, the Luna-1 first mission to pass by the Moon in 1959 and the Vostok-1 first manned mission in space in April 1961.

For the Soviet Union and Russia, Baikonur benefits from a closer proximity to the equator, meaning that space launch vehicles are already moving at a higher speed relative to Low Earth Orbit thus requiring less energy to place payloads in space.

Full Text . . . . Current Edition . . . . Subscription Information

  China’s Moon coalition adds new members and the historic Baikonur Cosmodrome