China's space programs are unstoppable. After launching space labs and astronauts one after the other, the Chinese space agency is reportedly interested in purchasing Russian rockets for its space exploration programs.
The new collation of different countries and their space agencies called BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) are said to be looking at developing their own joint satellite systems to enable a fluid data sharing among the members. A report said that these alliance work well for China. Since China and Russia are both members of BRICS, the former's interest in the later's space systems including rockets did not come as a surprise.
Beijing reportedly showed its interest towards Russian rockets during BRICS space agencies inaugural meeting held at the Chinese City of Zhuhai. The member nations Brazil, Russia, India, South Africa and China all agreed to cooperate in terms of space explorations.
BRICS meeting will now be a regular occurrence and future partnerships among members are expected to occur in the near future. One of the major projects the meeting discussed is the 'joint grouping of satellites' that will be used for Earth remote sensing systems. In order to do that, the legal system has to be remodeled as well to enable to working framework that will work for all the members.
"We think that, for our countries, going in this direction will allow us to increase the pool of information we receive about Earth by several times," Russian space agency (ROSCOSMOS) head Igor Komarov said in a statement.
The joint satellite system will harbor "immense" advantages for the members for natural disaster observation and environmental purposes. However, some fear that it could be used for military systems as well.
Reports say that China blatantly showed interest in acquiring Russia's rocket science and engineering. "We are talking about practical spheres such as engines. Our Chinese partners are interested in purchasing engines, as well as creating perspective engines and carrier rockets, including heavy-lift launch vehicles," Komarov said in another statement. This statement confirmed that China may be using Russian rockets in the future.
The BRICS alliance proved to be a powerful one and what ever space exploration project they decided to pursue has an infinite potential. The next meeting will take place in Moscow around May to June 2017.