Advertisement

To the moon and back: China reveals first details of crewed lunar landing mission by 2030

  • Lunar lander and crewed spacecraft to be sent on separate rockets for rendezvous and docking in orbit, senior engineer at Chinese space agency says
  • China aims to be only the second country to land humans on the moon after the US, whose Apollo mission used one rocket for both lander and crew craft

Reading Time:3 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
69
China plans to land a crewed rover on the moon by 2030. Photo: Getty Images
China has for the first time unveiled details of its plans to land astronauts on the Moon by the end of the decade.

If successful, the mission would make China only the second country after the United States to have achieved the feat.

China will use the lunar orbit rendezvous (LOR) process for the mission, state media reported, citing a senior engineer at the national space agency.

The Chinese LOR process will be similar to that adopted by the US Apollo programme more than half a century ago.

But unlike the Apollo mission, which used one rocket to carry both the moon lander and the command spaceship into lunar orbit, China will be sending them aboard two separate rockets.

40:36

China’s space plans: lunar GPS, a 3D-printed moon base and soil samples from Mars

China’s space plans: lunar GPS, a 3D-printed moon base and soil samples from Mars

Zhang Hailian, deputy chief engineer at the China Manned Space Agency’s Engineering Office, said the lunar lander and crewed spacecraft would be sent separately for rendezvous and docking in orbit, state broadcaster CCTV reported on Wednesday.

Advertisement