| ▲ | decimalenough 6 days ago | |
> No other program has or likely to come close in the next 13 years including the current US one. The Chinese are planning manned lunar landings in 2029-2030, and this is not a pipe dream, they've been systematically working at this for several decades now. They have already completed 6 out of 8 preparatory missions plus placed comms satellites in lunar orbit, and the final two are scheduled for 2026 and 2028. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Lunar_Exploration_Prog... | ||
| ▲ | manquer 5 days ago | parent [-] | |
It does not look like CMSA is planning any human orbital missions or a human lander(lanyue) return flight test before attempting to land with humans in 2030 just two missions from now, that is very ambitious. Perhaps milestones are being set to be competing with Artemis. When NASA gets delayed or reduced in scope, CNSA might reset to more achievable date. That is just engineering risk on dates, there are other class of risks in geopolitics or economics etc. Bottom line I am skeptical that a successful landing and return can be attempted in 2030. 2035 is a more realistic target I think. | ||