China's manned lunar exploration program in smooth progress: CMSA

BEIJING - The China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said on Thursday that China's manned lunar exploration program is progressing smoothly with Long March-10 rocket, manned spacecraft Mengzhou, the lunar lander Lanyue and moon-landing suit in prototype development stage.

China plans to land its astronauts on the moon before 2030 to carry out scientific exploration. The plan is to launch two carrier rockets to send a manned spacecraft and a lunar lander, respectively, into lunar orbit. The spacecraft and lunar lander will rendezvous and dock with each other, after which the astronauts will enter the lander.

The new carrier rocket Long March-10, using liquid hydrogen, liquid oxygen and kerosene as propellants, is mainly developed for the purpose of sending spacecraft and moon landers into the Earth-moon transfer orbit.

The CMSA also announced two crewed spaceflight missions in 2024 for China's space station, conducted by Shenzhou-18 and Shenzhou-19 crewed spaceship, respectively.

The crews for the two manned missions have been selected and the training for the missions is under way, and the Shenzhou-17 crew is scheduled to return to the Earth in April, according to the CMSA.

The CMSA said the international cooperation projects with agencies including the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs will be steadily pursued.