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Both the rockets will enter the moon's orbit and after a
successful docking the astronauts will enter the lunar lander to
descend onto the moon's surface, state media reported on
Wednesday, citing a China Manned Space Agency engineer.
The twin-rocket plan would overcome China's longstanding
technological hurdle of developing a heavy-duty rocket powerful
enough to send both astronauts and a lander probe.
After the astronauts have completed their scientific tasks and
collected samples, the lander will transport the astronauts back
to the orbiting spacecraft, on which they will return to Earth,
said Zhang Hailian, deputy chief engineer at the China Manned
Space, at a summit in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.
The race to send people to the moon has intensified in recent
years with both China and the United States are eyeing potential
mineral resources on the moon. Establishing lunar habitats could
also help support future crewed missions to other planets such
as Mars.
China still trails the United States in experience and
technology. The last NASA crewed landing was in 1972, and U.S.
astronauts are expected to return to the moon by 2025.
To meet China's lunar objectives, Chinese researchers are
developing the super-heavy Long March 10 carrier rocket, a
new-generation crewed spacecraft, a lunar lander, and a crewed
lunar rover, according to Zhang.
In 2020, China brought back lunar samples from the moon on an
uncrewed mission, making China the third nation to have
retrieved lunar samples after the United States and the Soviet
Union.
(Reporting by Ryan Woo; Editing by Michael Perry)
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