Venezuela agrees to join China’s lunar base project
During a visit to a new Chinese space facility in China, the head of Venezuela’s space agency announced that it has agreed to join China’s lunar base project.
Marglad Bencomo, executive director of the Bolivarian Agency for Space Activities (ABAE), visited China’s new, national Deep Space Exploration Laboratory (DSEL) March 30 to discuss cooperation and exchanges. She was met by Wu Yanhua, former deputy director of the China National Space Administration (CNSA) and now executive vice chairman of DSEL. The two sides exchanged in-depth views on international cooperation in the field of deep space exploration, according to a DSEL statement.
Bencomo said that Venezuela was willing to sign a China-Venezuela Memorandum of Understanding as soon as possible to jointly promote the construction of international lunar research stations, according to the DSEL statement.
If this partnership agreement is signed, Venezuela would be the first nation outside of Russia to join China’s project. China has offered a similar partnership deal to Brazil, which will likely not agree because it is a signatory to the Artemis Accords and working with China will threaten any work it does with the U.S. For example, the UAE recently ended a project to fly a rover on a Chinese rocket for these very reasons.
This deal with Venezuela is largely empty blather, since Venezuela is presently a bankrupt communist state, barely able to feed its own people.
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During a visit to a new Chinese space facility in China, the head of Venezuela’s space agency announced that it has agreed to join China’s lunar base project.
Marglad Bencomo, executive director of the Bolivarian Agency for Space Activities (ABAE), visited China’s new, national Deep Space Exploration Laboratory (DSEL) March 30 to discuss cooperation and exchanges. She was met by Wu Yanhua, former deputy director of the China National Space Administration (CNSA) and now executive vice chairman of DSEL. The two sides exchanged in-depth views on international cooperation in the field of deep space exploration, according to a DSEL statement.
Bencomo said that Venezuela was willing to sign a China-Venezuela Memorandum of Understanding as soon as possible to jointly promote the construction of international lunar research stations, according to the DSEL statement.
If this partnership agreement is signed, Venezuela would be the first nation outside of Russia to join China’s project. China has offered a similar partnership deal to Brazil, which will likely not agree because it is a signatory to the Artemis Accords and working with China will threaten any work it does with the U.S. For example, the UAE recently ended a project to fly a rover on a Chinese rocket for these very reasons.
This deal with Venezuela is largely empty blather, since Venezuela is presently a bankrupt communist state, barely able to feed its own people.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
“This deal with Venezuela is largely empty blather, since Venezuela is presently a bankrupt communist state, barely able to feed its own people.”
Okay, maybe the Chinese told the Venezuelans that the Moon is made of cheese.
So Venezuela has a space agency but its “economy” barely exists? I get very confused by the priorities of countries like that.
The priorities of Venezuela’s communist government make perfect sense. Garner power and wealth to those running the government, and let everyone else starve. Thus, creating a space agency with fake bureaucratic jobs for the government’s allies serves these goals perfectly.
Gosharoonie! Would a moon-capable rocket reach from Caracas to, say, Minneapolis? “So, solly! Clazy Venezuelans hit Twin City? No China circus, no China monkey.”
Gil Scott-Heron – Whitey On the Moon (Official Audio)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goh2x_G0ct4&ab_channel=AceRecords
Oh I hate that song! Now, China could prop them up in exchange for a pad or three and a free hand.