China gears up to build a deep-space lab in Luxembourg

(Representational image)

New Delhi: After reports of China losing control over its space lab Tiangong-1 surfaced, the buzz over how it's going to crash-land on Earth soon hasn't died down.

However, China, it appears, hasn't lost hope. On Tuesday, a leading Chinese science-technology institution announced that it was going to establish a deep-space lab in Luxembourg.

According to a Xinhua report, the lab will focus on the coordinated design and analysis of deep-space probes, as well as the development of key technologies in exploring and utilizing space resources in the solar system, according to a press release from the National Space Science Center (NSSC) with the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

A memorandum of the cooperation was signed by the NSSC and the Luxembourg Ministry of the Economy on Tuesday.

The memorandum also made arrangements for the operation of the lab and intellectual property rights.

Luxembourg launched a government initiative in 2016 to support the utilization of space resources.

(With IANS inputs)