The Chinese Manned Space Agency announced the spacecraft for the country's lunar program over the weekend and said the program is progressing well, CNN reported.
The spacecraft will be named Mengzu, or Dream Ship, and the lander will be called Lanyue, or Moon Embrace. The last phrase comes from a poem written by Mao Zedong in 1965. (Mao Zedong was General Secretary of the Communist Party of China until 1976 and the leader responsible for the deaths of between 40 and 80 million people in the country.)
According to the agency, the name
It symbolizes the Chinese people's ambition and determination to explore the universe and the moon.
Lanio is scheduled to land on a nearby celestial body, carrying two astronauts and a vehicle weighing 200 kilograms. Mengzhou, which houses the command center and return unit, is 9 meters long and weighs 22 tons. The spacecraft is expected to be launched into space by a very heavy launch vehicle called Hosszú Menetélés 10.
The US lunar program, Artemis, has planned to land a new man on the moon in 2026, which will definitely not happen, as it is already one year behind schedule. Chinese astronauts are scheduled to land on the moon sometime in the 2030s. The last time a man walked on the moon was in December 1972.
(CNN)
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