Last May, the China National Space Agency (CNSA) announced the creation of the “Man on the Moon” program. The aim of the program is to send manned missions to the Moon and create a Moon base. This came shortly after the announcement of cooperation between China and Russia on future lunar missions, including the establishment of a base near the moon’s south pole. In June 2022, it was announced that the name of the base would be the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) and a guide was published for international partners to participate in the project.

Now, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) has unveiled drawings of a next-generation spacecraft and lunar lander. The spacecraft will consist of two parts, a return capsule and a service compartment, while the lunar lander will consist of a descent and a thruster part. According to the agency, these vehicles will send crews to low Earth orbit (LEO) and perform manned missions on the lunar surface. The emergence of these images confirms the long-standing suspicion that China plans to land its astronauts entirely on the Moon by 2030.

According to CMSA’s statement, the rocket will carry three astronauts and seven crew members to China’s Tiangong space station in Earth orbit for the landing mission. The weight of the lunar landing module will be approximately 26 tons, the module will be able to carry two astronauts and a rover weighing 200 kg to the lunar surface. The rover has scientific instruments designed to study the lunar environment, search for resources and identify potential sites for future bases.

According to the official statement published by China Daily, the new system “will have reliability, reusability and a design suitable for both near-Earth flights and Moon landing missions.”

These are components of a plan developed by Chinese scientists and mission managers to send the first crew to the moon. According to previous statements, this plan includes the development of the three-stage Long March 10 heavy rocket, which can carry 70,000 kg of payload to low Earth orbit and 27,000 kg to the Moon.

China’s mission plan is similar to NASA’s Atremis III plan; It involves the Orion spacecraft and three astronauts on an SLS rocket that will carry them into lunar orbit for further work on the HLS manned spacecraft.