On January 22nd, Dr. Gang Zhao, Chair of the Board of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope-China Consortium (LSST-China) and Dr. David MacFarlane, Chair of the Board of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope Corporation (LSSTC), signed a memorandum of agreement regarding collaboration in the scientific exploitation of the LSST data.

The LSST will be built in Chile. It is expected to see its first light in October 2019 and start science operations two years after. The LSST will become a flagship astronomy project in the decades to come. It will serve beyond astronomy with enormous amount of data it produces. LSST data will be open to everyone in the United States and Chile, and data access outside these two countries has to be based on collaboration agreement. In order for researchers in China to obtain the data and other LSST resources, twelve domestic institutes established the LSST-China Consortium, which represents the Chinese astronomy community in the collaboration with the LSSTC.

The signing of the memorandum of agreement marks the beginning of substantial involvement of Chinese researchers in the LSST project. LSST-China and LSSTC will work together to advance LSST sciences in China and contribute to the research and development of large-scale survey projects in China.