China recently exhibited replicas of a host of current and future space infrastructure. South Africa joined forces with China to build a research base on the moon last year, with representatives of the Chinese and SA space agencies signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in September to "cooperate extensively" on the project.
The International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) project is being led by China, together with Russia, but South Africa is one of a host of countries that have agreed to help. to build a "comprehensive scientific experiment base" on the lunar surface and or in lunar orbit to carry out "multidisciplinary and multiobjective scientific research activities". South Africa and China, meanwhile, intend to cooperate in the demonstration, mission implementation, operation and application, education and training of the ILRS projec