China Unveils Moon Landing Plan for 2029
China outlines a timeline for a manned lunar mission by 2029, with key milestones shared at a recent space conference.
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China has revealed its plan to send humans to the Moon before 2030, with a target date of 2029, according to officials at the Seventh Manned Spaceflight Conference. Deputy chief planner Wang Xiang outlined an ambitious roadmap that mirrors NASA’s Apollo missions of the 1960s and 1970s.
The plan includes a series of critical milestones. A successful uncrewed test flight of the new Long March 10A rocket and Mengzhou spaceship to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) is tentatively set for early next year. This will be followed by an uncrewed test of the larger Long March 10 rocket, carrying the Lanyue lander, in early 2028. This mission will feature an unmanned landing on the Moon.
In early 2029, a full dress rehearsal of the manned mission will take place, with all the rockets, the capsule, and the lander involved. The actual mission is expected to follow later that year. According to conference materials shared on X and other platforms, the timeline is ambitious but achievable if there are no major setbacks.
Eric Berger noted that the plan omits a mission similar to Apollo 8 or Artemis II, which involved a crew flying out to the Moon and either entering orbit or passing close by before returning to Earth. However, the Mengzhou spaceship, which will serve as China’s crewed vessel for Tiangong space station crew and cargo transport, should be well-tested before 2029.
The Long March 10 rocket, while powerful, is not as capable as the Saturn V used in the Apollo missions. It will require two launches to transport the three taikonauts and their landing vessel to the Moon. One rocket will carry the Lanyue landing module, while the other will carry the Mengzhou space capsule.
China’s pre-2030 Moon roadmap is locking in 🌕 The Tests:
CZ-10A: Mengzhou cargo mission to CSS
CZ-10: Standalone Lanyue descent/ascent test
2x CZ-10: uncrewed full dress rehearsal The Mission:
• Crew of 3 (2 to surface)
• 3-day surface stay (daily EVAs) https://t.co/tUHEpt5DUx
All three taikonauts will travel to the Moon on Mengzhou, and then the two spacecraft will mate up in lunar orbit. Two of the crewmembers will move over to Lanyue for what Beijing hopes will be the first-ever manned lunar landing by anyone other than American astronauts. One taikonaut will remain aboard Mengzhou in a support role.
Aside from the addition of a Moon rover called Tansuo — Wang said it was “notable that we will deploy a rover on our first crewed lunar landing mission” — it’s essentially a two-rocket replay of the Apollo 11 mission from July, 1969.
Source: PJ Media
