BEIJING – China announced today (April 24) to send people on a mannedmission to the moon alongside building research station there within thenext decade.
Citing a top space official, China aims to achieve space superpower statusand took a major step towards that goal when it became the first nation toland a rover on the far side of the moon in January.
It now plans to build a scientific research station on the moon s SouthPole within the next 10 years, China National Space Administration headZhang Kejian said during a speech marking “Space Day”, the official Xinhuanews agency reported.
AFP reported that he also added that Beijing plans to launch a Mars probeby 2020 and confirmed that a fourth lunar probe, the Chang e-5, will belaunched by the end of the year.
Originally scheduled to collect moon samples in the second half of 2017,the Chang e-5 was delayed after its planned carrier, the powerful LongMarch 5 Y2 rocket, failed during a separate launch in July 2017.
Read Top Stories
China on Wednesday also announced its Long March-5B rocket will make itsmaiden flight in the first half of 2020, carrying the core parts of aplanned space station.
The Tiangong — or “Heavenly Palace” — will go into orbit in 2022, theChina Manned Space Engineering Office said.
