The key facts
- The negotiations cover navigation, a lunar mission, and a Mars mission
- The navigation roadmap for 2026–2030 was signed in November 2025
- Rosatom plans to build the first nuclear power plant on the Moon by the middle of the next decade
Three areas of cooperation
Russia and China are discussing joint space missions to the Moon and Mars, as well as interaction between navigation systems. Head of Roscosmos Dmitry Bakanov told this to the Vesti news service, as reported by Life.ru. According to him, the negotiations between Moscow and Beijing are focused on three areas, covering both the practical application of space technologies on Earth and the exploration of other celestial bodies.
Navigation, the Moon and Mars
“The first is the joint use of the navigation signal. We have GLONASS, the Chinese have BeiDou, to increase accuracy. The second is joint work on the lunar mission. And the third is joint work on the Martian mission,” Bakanov explained. Cooperation in satellite navigation will improve coordinate determination using the two systems.
Roadmap and lunar station
Earlier, Life.ru reported that Russia and China approved a roadmap for cooperation in satellite navigation for 2026–2030. The document was signed in November 2025 and provides for the joint development of positioning technologies and the creation of unified standards for the commercial use of GLONASS and BeiDou. In addition, in an interview with the outlet, Bakanov spoke about the creation of the International Scientific Lunar Station: Russia intends to supply its infrastructure with a source of nuclear energy. In 2025, Roscosmos and the China National Space Administration signed the corresponding memorandum. On October 15, head of Rosatom Alexey Likhachev announced plans to build the first nuclear power plant on the Moon by the middle of the next decade.
