The space race continues unabated between companies as well as between countries. The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) wanted to send astronauts to the Moon as early as 2025 as part of the Artemis missions.
Today, a statement came from China, which competes with the USA in the space race. The Chinese Manned Space Agency has officially announced that they will send astronauts to the Moon by 2030.
A short stay on the lunar surface is planned.
Lin Xiqiang, one of the agency’s directors, announced at a conference in the city of Jiuquan today that the country has a goal of sending humans to the Moon by 2030. Xiqiang said that China plans to stay on the lunar surface for a short time, adding that the mission will be an exploration in human-robot partnership.
With these moves by China, the space race between the USA and China started to heat up even more. Both countries have plans to establish colonies on the Moon. With its current plans, China seems determined to catch up with its formidable rivals such as the USA and Russia. Over the years, the country has accomplished successful tasks such as sample retrieval from the Moon, Mars missions and the Tiangong station.
Tiangong station will grow
In addition, China introduced the new crew to be sent to the Tiangong Space Station. One of the 3 crew members, who will be sent to the station by the Shenzou 16 vehicle on 30 May, will be a civilian for the first time. That person will be Gui Haicho, a professor at one of the leading aviation institutes.
China also added that it wants to expand its Tiangong station. According to Lin Xiqiang’s statement, a fourth module will be added at “appropriate” time to advance support for scientific experiments and provide better working and living conditions for the crew. The station was normally planned to consist of 3 sections. The third and final module was launched into orbit in November 2022 and added to the station. However, today’s statement revealed that Tiangong will grow even more.
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