China plans to send two rockets to the moon by 2030, one carrying the spacecraft that will land on the surface and the other transporting the astronauts.
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China plans to send two rockets for crewed moon landing
Reuters
July 12, 20231:53 PM GMT+8
BEIJING, July 12 (Reuters) - China plans to send two rockets to the moon by 2030, one carrying the spacecraft that will land on the surface and the other transporting the astronauts.
Both the rockets will enter the moon's orbit and after a successful docking the astronauts will enter the lunar lander to descend onto the moon's surface, state media reported on Wednesday, citing a China Manned Space Agency engineer.
The twin-rocket plan would overcome China's longstanding technological hurdle of developing a heavy-duty rocket powerful enough to send both astronauts and a lander probe.
After the astronauts have completed their scientific tasks and collected samples, the lander will transport the astronauts back to the orbiting spacecraft, on which they will return to Earth, said Zhang Hailian, deputy chief engineer at the China Manned Space, at a summit in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.
To meet China's lunar objectives, Chinese researchers are developing the super-heavy Long March 10 carrier rocket, a new-generation crewed spacecraft, a lunar lander, and a crewed lunar rover, according to Zhang.
Reporting by Ryan Woo; Editing by Michael Perry
China plans to send two rockets to the moon by 2030, one carrying the spacecraft that will land on the surface and the other transporting the astronauts.
www.reuters.com