China has announced its plans to send astronauts to the moon by 2030. On Monday, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) announced that Beijing plans to expand its orbiting space station.
Lin Xiqiang, Deputy Director of the CMSA, said that China had initiated the lunar landing phase of its manned lunar exploration program.
China has joined the new age Moon race and will land astronauts before 2030.#China #moon https://t.co/z4k7jaylsI
— IndiaToday (@IndiaToday) May 29, 2023
Overview
While addressing media at the Jiuquian Launch Centre in Inner Mongolia ahead of the launch of the spacecraft that will take three astronauts to its space station Tiangong, Xiqiang said that the overall goal is to carry out lunar scientific exploration and related technological experiments.
Jing Haipeng, Zhu Yangzhu, and Gui Haichao are the three astronauts selected to travel by the Shenzhou-16 spaceflight mission to join the orbiting space station.
China has announced several times that it aims to master technologies like an Earth-moon manned roundtrip, lunar surface short-term stay, and human-robot joint exploration.
Additionally, the CMSA intends to accomplish multiple landing, roving, sampling, researching, and returning tasks.
Xiqiang highlighted that China’s programme would help promote the development of manned space technology from near Earth to deep space and deepen human understanding of the origin and evolution of the moon and the solar system.
Jing, a major general who has made three previous space flights, said, “We firmly believe that the spring of China’s space science has arrived, and we have the determination, confidence, and ability to resolutely complete the mission.”
China launched a new three-person crew for its orbiting space station on Tuesday, with an eye to putting astronauts on the moon before the end of the decade https://t.co/Dy5xN8PEsj
— TIME (@TIME) May 30, 2023
US-China Space Rivalry
China's first human-crewed space mission took place in 2003, making it the third country after the Soviet Union and the US to send humans to space.
Amid the US-China rivalry in every sphere, the space arena is not untouched and mimics the space race between the USSR and the US in the cold war era, experts note.
The US has declared its intention to put astronauts on the moon by 2025 with the help of private companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin.
The US had excluded China from the International Space Station, resulting in Beijing crafting its own space station. In 2021, China and Russia announced plans to set up an International Lunar Research Station. Russian space agency Roscosmos and China's National Space Administration announced in March 2021 that they signed an agreement to develop research facilities on the moon's surface, in orbit or both.