The U.S. and eight other nations signed a landmark agreement at NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View this week that scientists hope will lay the groundwork for a new generation of lunar exploration.

Unlike the all-American Apollo program, the new agreement creates a multinational fleet of robot spacecraft returning to the moon in coming years.

NASA and the eight other countries - Canada, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Britain and France - plan to formally announce the agreement next week

The announcement wraps up a momentous week at Ames, including the largest NASA science conference devoted to the moon since the 1970s.

KCBS' Henry Mulak reports