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China Plans to Land its First Taikonauts on the Moon by 2030

China will also launch three astronauts to its now fully operational space station on Tuesday, one of whom will be its first ever civilian to go to space


Astronauts Jing Haipeng, Zhu Yangzhu and Gui Haichao attend a press conference before the Shenzhou-16 spaceflight mission to China's space station, at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, near Jiuquan, Gansu province, China
Astronauts Jing Haipeng, Zhu Yangzhu and Gui Haichao attend a press conference before the Shenzhou-16 spaceflight mission to China's space station, at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, near Jiuquan, Gansu province, China. Photo: Reuters

 

China is planning to land its first crewed mission on the Moon before 2030, the country’s top agency for manned space missions said on Monday.

Lin Xiqiang, deputy director of the China Manned Space Agency, said the country has entered into the lunar landing phase of its manned mission to explore the moon, according to a report by state-run CGTN.

China will also launch three astronauts, or taikonauts, to its now fully operational space station on Tuesday, one of whom will be its first ever civilian to go to space.

 

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The developments follow China’s five-year plan, revealed last month, to start building a lunar base by 2028. The country will use lunar soil and 3D printing technology to build the base, top Chinese scientists have said.

The moves are part of China’s ongoing race with the US to reach the moon. US space agency NASA is planning to launch the Artemis III mission, its first crewed moon landing mission in more than half a century, by 2025 or 2026.

The world’s third largest economy, Japan, meanwhile, is aiming to put its astronaut on the moon by the late 2020s.

 

Lunar landing ambitions

CMSA’s Liu said China is planning to make a “short stay” on the moon and undertake a “human-robotic joint exploration” of its surface, according to a report by the Associated Press.

“We have a complete near-Earth human space station and human round-trip transportation system,” the agency quoted Liu as saying. The country’s plan to send two yearly crewed missions to space is “sufficient for carrying out our objectives,” he added.

Among other objectives of the mission was to form “an independent capability of manned lunar exploration,” Liu told CGTN.

 

First Chinese civilian in space

On Tuesday, China’s Shenzhou-16 spacecraft will lift off atop a Long March 2F rocket, in the fifth manned mission since 2021 to its Tiangong space station.

The mission is part of a crew rotation, with the fresh crew carrying the first Chinese civilian, Gui Haichao, to space.

A professor from Beijing-based Beihang University, 36-year-old Gui will join the crew as a payload specialist. Unlike all former Chinese astronauts he is the first crew member who is not a member of Chinese military, the People’s Liberation Army.

China developed its own space station after being denied access to the International Space Station, primarily over US concerns about close ties between China’s space programs and the PLA.

Two of the other crew members — Jing Haipeng and Zhu Yangzhu — are part of the astronaut brigade of the People’s Liberation Army.

56-year-old Jing will have flown more missions than any previous Chinese astronaut with his launch on Tuesday.

 

  • Vishakha Saxena, with inputs from Reuters

 

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China Calls NASA Chief ‘Colonial,’ Says Won’t Take Over Moon

 

US Wary of China Plan for Weapons System on Moon – AS USA

 

Vishakha Saxena

Vishakha Saxena is the Multimedia and Social Media Editor at Asia Financial. She has worked as a digital journalist since 2013, and is an experienced writer and multimedia producer. As a trader and investor, she is keenly interested in new economy, emerging markets and the intersections of finance and society. You can write to her at [email protected]

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