China and Brazil begin building joint space laboratory

Key facts

• China and Brazil have begun building a joint laboratory for space technologies, Chinese state-owned defence electronics firm CETC said.
• CETC’s Network Communications Research Institute signed an agreement with Brazil’s Federal University of Campina Grande and the Federal University of Paraíba to establish the China–Brazil Joint Laboratory for Radio Astronomy Technology.
• The joint laboratory will support frontier research for astronomical observation and deep-space exploration.
• The laboratory initiative comes as China and Brazil make progress on the BINGO radio telescope, designed to help study the universe’s structure and dark energy.
• The BINGO radio telescope, billed as South America’s largest radio telescope, is scheduled for completion in 2026.