China plans to put its first astronauts on the moon by 2030 without flying a crewed test mission to the moon beforehand, relying on uncrewed rehearsals instead.
Chinese space officials laid out the schedule at the 7th Manned Space Symposium in Beijing on October 31, according to the Chinese government's wire service. A slide reportedly from the presentation, posted by an independent outlet that tracks the Chinese program, shows the sequence. A crew flies the Mengzhou capsule to Earth orbit in 2027. The Lanyue lander then touches down on its own in 2028, and in 2029 an uncrewed mission rehearses the full landing, from docking in lunar orbit through liftoff and a second docking.
China's stated reason is safety. "For any crewed mission, we will try to fly it in an unmanned state first," said Wang Xiang, chief designer of the lunar exploration program. The program said early tests of its rocket, capsule and lander are done. The 2028 lander will also measure surface temperature and dust behavior.
NASA is doing it differently, with a 2028 landing target of its own. Artemis II flew four astronauts around the moon in April. Next year, the Artemis III crew will spend about two weeks in Earth orbit practicing docking with test versions of landers from Blue Origin and SpaceX. Apollo followed a similar script, with four crewed test flights before the July 1969 landing. Jeremy Parsons, who manages the Artemis program, said a nearby test means "we can come home much more quickly" if something goes wrong.
The gap is narrower than it sounds, because NASA uses robots too. SpaceX aims to land an uncrewed Starship on the moon by the end of 2027, and Blue Origin is preparing its own uncrewed demonstration after Artemis III. The architectures also match closely: two crew members descend while the others stay in orbit. The other split is hardware. NASA is keeping two landers in the running, while China is building one.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman has warned the race will be closer than it needed to be, and NASA's own schedule has slipped from a 2024 landing goal, with Artemis III about three months behind. Both countries now depend on a lander that has not yet touched the moon.