China’s Space Agency said on Monday that it plans to make its first manned landing on the moon by 2030.
According to information from the state agency Xinhua, the deputy director of the Chinese space agency, Lin Xiqiang, said at a press conference that China has recently started the lunar landing phase of its manned lunar exploration program.
According to the agency, Lin said that “the overall goal is to achieve China’s first manned landing on the Moon by 2030 and carry out lunar scientific exploration and related technological experiments”, in addition to the goals of “mastering key technologies such as round-trip travel”. manned Earth-Moon, short-term permanence on the lunar surface, joint human-robot exploration”, among others.
At the press conference, China announced that this Tuesday (30) it will send a civilian to its space station, Tiangong, for the first time: Professor Gui Haichao will be part of the crew.
The United States is, until today, the only country that successfully carried out manned missions to the Moon: 12 American astronauts stepped on the lunar soil, between 1969 and 1972. The feat represented the victory of the American space program over the Soviet one, a dispute that today seems to be being recreated with China.
In April, the space agencies of the United States (NASA) and Canada (CSA) announced the names of the four members of the Artemis II mission, which will fly around the Moon in November 2024.
Artemis III, planned for 2025, is expected to be the first human return to the lunar surface in more than 50 years, NASA said.
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