The People’s Republic of China announced its goal of landing an astronaut on the moon by the end of the current decade. China’s announcement also sparked a potential deep concern from American officials, as the United States plans its own manned lunar mission in 2025.
Beijing announced its plan to send taikonauts to the lunar surface this week. The planned mission commander Jing Haipeng said that the “spring of China’s space science has arrived, and we have the determination, confidence and ability to resolutely complete the mission.”
Furthermore, a Chinese Manned Space Agency official said that the astronauts would have a “short stay on the lunar surface and human-robotic joint exploration.”
The Chinese pledge echoes President John F. Kennedy’s 1961 promise to place a man on the moon before 1970, which was kept with 1969’s Apollo 11 mission.
The Chinese plans led to significant concern among analysts, some of whom believe that China will use its space missions to counter American influence.
The United States is swiftly moving to outpace China to the lunar surface. The planned Artemis mission would bring back Americans to the moon for the first time in 50 years.
✅ Artemis II @NASA_Orion Service Module Completes Acoustic Testing
Engineers recently completed a series of acoustic tests on the European Service Module for NASA’s Artemis II mission while inside the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space… pic.twitter.com/pLdTFOoxyH
— NASA's Exploration Ground Systems (@NASAGroundSys) May 24, 2023
China has pushed its space program further in the recent past. The communist nation launched its first civilian into space last week.
China called the launch a “complete success.” China launched the mission to its Tiangong space station.
The People’s Republic developed the station after it was excluded from participating in the International Space Station.
Chinese officials recently announced that Tiangog is now in the “application and development stage.”
The Artemis III program is expected to deliver humans to the moon in December 2025. The program was started by President Donald Trump.
The next stage of the plan is a planned lunar flyby mission after November 2024. Four astronauts whose identities were recently announced, Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen will crew the mission.
Three of the four spent considerable time at the International Space Station. The team consists of three Americans and Hansen, a Canadian.
