China announces plans to reach the moon before 2030

China announced that it plans to put men on the moon before 2030. In addition, as part of their space program, they will seek to expand the space station currently in orbit. The news comes as the United States is working to set foot on the moon again, with an estimated date of late 2025.

The statement came from the deputy director of the China Manned Space Agency, Lin Xiqiang, who declined to give tentative dates for the mission. At the same time, he introduced the three astronauts who will head to the space station in a launch scheduled for Tuesday morning, replacing those who have already spent six months in orbit.

“We have a complete near-Earth human space station and human round-trip transportation system,” said the official, who did specify that two manned missions a year are “enough to carry out our objectives.”

According to him, the Asian giant is preparing a “short stay on the lunar surface and human-robotic joint exploration.”

The aforementioned new crew will include a civilian for the first time, as all previous crew members belonged to the People’s Liberation Army, the military wing of the country’s Communist Party.

The chosen one is Gui Haichao, a professor at Beijing’s premier aerospace research institute, who will join mission commander Jing Haipeng and spacecraft engineer Zhu Yangzh, a payload expert.

Speaking to local media, the commander said the mission marked “a new stage of application and development” in China’s space program.

“We firmly believe that the spring of China’s space science has arrived, and we have the determination, confidence, and ability to resolutely complete the mission,” he added.

In 2003, China became the third country to launch a manned mission, following the Soviet Union in April 1961 and the United States a month later, in May of the same year. U.S. leadership has a strategic goal of returning to set foot on the moon by the end of 2025. To carry out this mission, companies from the private sector, such as SpaceX and Blue Origin, will support it.