China details four-mission roadmap to land astronauts on Moon before 2030
At the Seventh Manned Spaceflight Conference in Beijing, officials including chief lunar designer Wang Xiang outlined a staged sequence of missions using the Long March 10 rocket, Mengzhou crew capsule and Lanyue lander. The plan runs from an uncrewed Long March 10A/Mengzhou test in early 2027 through lunar-orbit docking tests in 2029, culminating in a crewed landing attempt before 2030.
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The disclosure gives outside observers a concrete timeline against which to measure China's technical progress toward a crewed lunar landing. It also underscores the ongoing race with NASA's Artemis program, since both nations are aiming to put astronauts back on the Moon this decade, though neither has yet flown a mission equivalent to Apollo 8 or Artemis II.
- China plans four key missions between 2027 and 2029 leading to a crewed lunar landing before 2030.
- The approach uses two separate Long March 10 rocket launches that dock in lunar orbit, unlike Apollo's single Saturn V launch.
- The published timeline lets analysts track whether China can keep pace with or overtake NASA's Artemis lunar ambitions.
Source: arstechnica.com, 2026-11-02
Published there as: “China publicly discloses plan for a lunar landing within three years”
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