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China Unveils Detailed Plan For Manned Moon Landing Before 2030 In Beijing
“Target: 2028”
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China will use two-launch, lunar orbit rendezvous architecture for a crewed Moon landing before 2030. Mengzhou spacecraft and Lanyue lander will undergo uncrewed tests ahead of crewed missions.
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Before 2030 Timeline
China laid out a detailed plan to land astronauts on the Moon “before 2030” during the Seventh Manned Spaceflight Conference in Beijing, with Wang Xiang describing a sequence of missions leading to a crewed landing. The plan uses lunar-orbit rendezvous similar to NASA’s Apollo approach, while China launches the crew and lunar lander separately because it lacks a rocket as powerful as Saturn V.
Wang told CCTV that “We will use the unmanned Lanyue lunar lander to verify all the key technologies throughout the entire crewed process as much as possible,” covering launch, lunar orbit rendezvous and docking, landing, staying on the surface, and re-docking for the crewed return. Ars Technica also described a staged test campaign that targets early 2027 for an uncrewed Long March 10A and Mengzhou flight, targets 2028 for an uncrewed Long March 10 and Lanyue mission, and targets 2029 for a concurrent dual Long March 10 launch that docks in lunar orbit.
Two Launches, Docking
Inside Outer Space said Wang described a “two launches, lunar orbit rendezvous” architecture in which two Long March-10 carrier rockets launch the Lanyue lunar lander and the Mengzhou spacecraft in succession, then the two vehicles rendezvous and dock in lunar orbit. Wang outlined the same approach at the seventh Manned Space Symposium in Beijing, and it described the architecture as “Two launches, lunar orbit rendezvous” for China’s manned lunar exploration program.
Inside Outer Space added that the Mengzhou can carry three astronauts between Earth and lunar orbit, with two riding the Lanyue lunar lander between lunar orbit and the lunar surface. CGTN said Wang described near-Earth validation by using the near-Earth version of the Long March-10 rocket and the near-Earth version of the Mengzhou spacecraft to validate basic technologies and critical re-entry and return phases before switching to the lunar version for the landing mission.
Uncrewed Tests and Stakes
Inside Outer Space said the uncrewed Lanyue flight mission will collect environmental data including “first-hand measured information on lunar surface temperature, lunar dust conditions,” and it will also measure in-orbit performance of the spacecraft. Wang said the uncrewed mission will solicit secondary payloads nationwide, and it stated that for a single mission the total mass of carried payloads will not exceed 50 kilograms and total power consumption will not exceed 100 watts.
Ars Technica said China’s public timeline provides a way to gauge technical progress toward landing humans on the Moon before 2030, and it noted that NASA has set a target of landing humans on the Moon by 2028. Wang described a validation principle for crewed missions, telling CCTV, “for any crewed mission, we will try to fly it in an unmanned state first,” as China builds toward the crewed landing effort.