Report: Two of China's three Moon crew would walk, one stays up

China intends to send three astronauts to the Moon on its first crewed lunar mission, with two of them landing on the surface, state media reported on October 31.

The state-run Global Times attributed the plan to Wang Xiang, a deputy chief designer of China's crewed space program, who spoke at a symposium in Beijing. ^[1] The third astronaut would stay aboard the crewed spacecraft in lunar orbit while the other two go down. ^[1]

No launch date was given. China's stated goal, repeated by the China Manned Space Agency in May, is a crewed landing before 2030. ^[3] What is new is the shape of the mission, the clearest public picture so far of how Beijing means to get there.

Two rockets, one meeting in orbit

According to Global Times, the plan uses two launches of the Long March-10, China's new heavy rocket. ^[1] The first sends a lander to lunar orbit. A crewed spacecraft then launches on the second rocket, finds the lander and docks with it. ^[1]

Two crew members move across into the lander and descend to the surface for scientific exploration. ^[1] When they finish, they lift off in the lander, rejoin the spacecraft in lunar orbit and all three fly home in it. ^[1]

The order of events puts the weight on one maneuver. The lander goes first and waits, so if the two vehicles cannot meet in lunar orbit, the crew has nothing to land with. Rendezvous and docking sit at the center of this design.

The hardware has names. The rocket is the Long March-10, the crew spacecraft is Mengzhou and the lander is Lanyue. ^[3][6] The agency said in May that the Long March-10 had completed a low-altitude demonstration and validation test and a maximum dynamic pressure abort test, which checks that the crew capsule can escape a rocket in trouble at the moment the air pushes hardest on it. ^[3] It listed the first flights of the rocket, Mengzhou and Lanyue as upcoming. ^[3]

What is confirmed and what is not

The symposium itself is established. The China Manned Space Agency said its seventh Manned Space Academic Conference opened in Beijing on October 31, that Wang gave a keynote and that the meeting ran for two days. ^[2]

The agency's own account does not say how many astronauts would fly or how the mission would be flown. ^[2] The crew size and the two-launch plan therefore rest, for now, on state media's report of Wang's remarks. They are best read as a described plan from a named program official, not as proof that the hardware or the schedule is ready.

Other basic questions are open. Nobody has said how long the two astronauts would stay on the surface or what work they would do there. Nor has Beijing published a schedule for the test flights that must come first.

A race on paper

China's goal is not new. In May 2023 the agency's deputy director, Lin Xiqiang, set out a crewed landing by 2030 and said the program needed a new rocket, spacecraft, lander, spacesuit and launch facilities. ^[5] In February 2026, CGTN reported the same target, with the three main vehicles in development and several tests done. ^[6]

The American side is easier to date. NASA says it is targeting its first Artemis landing, on Artemis IV, for early 2028. ^[4] The crew would fly in the Orion capsule and transfer to a commercial lander, with the provider depending on how ready that lander is. ^[4]

Put the two targets side by side and NASA's comes first. "Before 2030" gives China until the end of 2029, so on published dates the US-led program is not behind. But a target is not a landing. NASA's depends on a commercial lander being ready. China's depends on three new vehicles that, as of the agency's May account, had yet to make their first flights. ^[3][4]

That is why the new detail matters even without a date. A plan that names who rides, who descends and who waits in orbit is what a program publishes when it is far enough along to commit to a design. It also makes the competition easier to follow, since each side now has a visible and testable path.

What to watch next is whether the China Manned Space Agency puts the crew and flight plan into its own official material, and whether it announces dates for the first Long March-10, Mengzhou and Lanyue flights. Those flights will say more about the race than any symposium speech.