China announced today that it has begun the “manned moon landing phase” of its lunar exploration program, a goal it plans to reach before 2030, on the eve of putting three astronauts into orbit.
The deputy director of China’s Manned Space Agency, Lin Xiqiang, explained at a press conference that China’s Manned Space Engineering Office “started development work” on projects that include “new exploration vehicles, astronaut suits , a new generation of spacecraft and new rockets”.
The work aims to make possible a “short stay on the Moon”, a “joint man-machine exploration” and the tasks of “landing on the moon, movements on the surface, collecting minerals, scientific research and returning to Earth”, Lin said.
Lin also announced the launch of the Shenzhou-16, which will carry three astronauts to the Tiangong space station, on Tuesday.
Jing Haipeng, Zhu Yangzhu and Gui Haichao will depart for Tiangong from the Jiuquan launch base, located in a desert area in the north of the country.
For Jing, the commander of the manned mission, this is the fourth mission in which he participates, which will make him the ‘taikonaut’ – as Chinese astronauts are called – with more missions.
For Zhu and Gui this is the first mission in space.
Jing and Zhu will be in charge of maneuvering and managing the ship and conducting experiments.
Construction of the space station was completed in late 2022. Tiangong is likely to become the world’s only space station by 2024 if the International Space Station, a US-led initiative that China is barred from accessing due to military ties to its space program, is decommissioned that year, as planned.
China already managed to land the Chang’e 4 probe on the side of the Moon not visible from Earth in 2019, becoming the first country to do so.
The Asian country also recently announced the fourth phase of its lunar exploration program, which includes the construction in the next decade of a scientific exploration base at the south pole of the Earth’s natural satellite.
