U.S. teams up with Russia to seek what lies beyond the deep space by building a space station near moon

NewsBharati 29-Sep-2017

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Washington, September 29: Nobody knows what’s lying far beyond of our planet Earth. Will we ever know it? Is there any possibility? Well, maybe yes! NASA and the Russian space agency Roscosmos have announced a new partnership for human exploration of the moon and deep space. Both agencies signed a joint statement on cooperation at the 68th International Astronautical Congress in Adelaide, Australia.

The decision to partner with Russia on human missions to the moon and beyond came about as NASA continues to flesh out ideas for its "deep-space gateway" concept, a mission architecture designed to send astronauts into cislunar space or lunar orbit by the 2020s. Traveling to and from cislunar space will help NASA and its partners gain the knowledge and experience necessary to venture beyond the moon and into deep space.
Roscosmos and NASA already work together with other space agencies around the world to run research projects aboard the International Space Station. Now the international partners will work together to build a miniature space station in lunar orbit – a type of infrastructure that could serve as a steppingstone for future crewed missions to Mars, NASA officials said.
Meanwhile, NASA is also asking the private space industry to contribute to the deep-space gateway. The agency has already awarded contracts for deep-space habitat designs to Bigelow Airspace, Lockheed Martin, Orbital ATK and others.

NASA Roscosmos US Russia Space Space station Deep space International Astronautical Congress Space agency