To further what is increasingly perceived as a new space competition pitting the Asian autocrat against the United States and its democratic allies, China intends to land astronauts on the moon by the year 2030. The United States plans to return astronauts to the moon’s surface by the year 2025.
On Monday, Lin Xiqiang, deputy director of the Chinese Manned Space Agency, acknowledged China’s ambition at a news conference, though he did not provide a timeline. First, China is getting ready for a “short stay on the lunar surface and human-robotic joint exploration,” as Lin put it. He declared, “We have a complete near-Earth human space station and human round-trip transportation system,” adding that this was accompanied by a system for selecting, training, and supporting future astronauts. It is “sufficient for carrying out our objectives,” Lin stated, to have two crewed missions every year.
China’s space agency announced the expansion of the country’s orbiting space station and revealed the new crew members who would be joining them on Tuesday for the launch. The third portion of the Tiangong space station was reportedly attached in November, marking its completion. As for the fourth module, “at an appropriate time to advance support for scientific experiments and provide the crew with improved working and living conditions,” Lin stated.
The three astronauts who are launching on the Shenzhou 16 spacecraft will briefly share the station with the three who have been living there for the past six months, conducting experiments and constructing equipment. For the first time, the team consists of more than just military personnel. Previous crew members have all served in the People’s Liberation Army, the armed wing of the communist party that rules the country.
A professor at Beijing’s premier aerospace research centre, Gui Haichao, will serve as the payload specialist alongside mission commander Jing Haipeng and spacecraft engineer Zhu Yangzhu. When China launched its first manned space mission in 2003, it joined the United States and the former Soviet Union as the only other countries that have ever accomplished this feat. After being denied access to the International Space Station due to concerns raised by the United States about the close ties between the Chinese space programmes and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), China decided to construct its own space station.
News on SNBC13.com
