NASA will not build a space station near the moon alone. The Russian space agency Roskosmos will help it in this regard.
It seems that the planned construction of a space station near the Moon by NASA will not be carried out exclusively by the United States. In this respect, the US Agency will support Russia.
Yesterday, during the 68th International Astronautical Congress in Adelaide, NASA and the Russian space agency Roskosmos signed a declaration in which they agreed to jointly build a manned space port in orbit around the Moon. Such a port can help prepare for missions that would aim at further parts of the Solar System, including Mars. In addition, it will be a stopover during longer space travels.
Let us remind you that in May of this year NASA presented its two-phase plan for the manned trip to Mars. According to this plan, the first stage of the mission was to include four manned flights into the space inside the Moon's orbit. The flights to be carried out between 2018 and 2026 were to provide the space space station Deep Space Gateway with the parts that would be used to create the space station. It is not clear exactly how Russia's participation will influence these plans.
NASA and Roskosmos intend to work together on the systems necessary to organise missions in orbit and on the planet's natural satellite surface. In addition, Russia and the USA also held talks on the possibility of using Proton-M and Angara rockets during the construction of the Moon Space Port.
Well, it seems that sooner or later people will return to the Moon. Such cooperation will certainly make it easier.