China Lays Out Its Most Detailed Moon Landing Plan Yet, Targeting Crewed Flight Before 2030

China just pulled back the curtain on how it plans to put boots on the Moon. At the Seventh Manned Spaceflight Conference in Beijing this weekend, space officials confirmed the country intends to land its astronauts on the lunar surface within three years, according to Ars Technica.

Officials — including Wang Xiang, chief designer for the lunar exploration program — rolled out the country's most publicly detailed roadmap to date. The plan covers a series of missions building toward a crewed landing, with the target set as 'before 2030.'

The flight profile will look familiar. China's approach uses lunar-orbit rendezvous, the same technique NASA leaned on during the Apollo program in the 1960s and early 1970s. A crewed spacecraft and a lunar lander meet up in orbit around the Moon, and astronauts drop to the surface from there.

There's one big difference from Apollo. China doesn't have a rocket as powerful as NASA's Saturn V, so the crew and the lander will launch separately and link up later. That means two launches instead of one — more moving parts, more chances for something to slip.

The Beijing conference marks the clearest signal yet that China is treating the Moon as a near-term goal, not a distant one. With the hardware still flying and the schedule tightening, the next few years will show whether the 'before 2030' promise holds.

Also read the full Ars Technica report for the complete mission breakdown.