China aims to land astronauts on Moon within three years

China has announced that it intends to land astronauts on the Moon within the next three years. The statement came from Chinese space officials during the Seventh Manned Spaceflight Conference in Beijing, where they outlined the nation’s most detailed public plans for a series of missions that would culminate in a crewed lunar landing “before 2030.”

Chief designer for the lunar exploration program, Wang Xiang, was among the officials who presented the roadmap. The plan calls for a lunar‑orbit rendezvous, a technique used by NASA during the Apollo program of the 1960s and early 1970s.

Because China does not yet have a launch vehicle as powerful as the Saturn V, the crew and the lunar lander will be launched separately to the Moon.