China News Service, Beijing, February 24 (Reporter Ma Shuaisha) According to the China Manned Space Engineering Office, after public solicitation and selection, the name of the new aircraft for China's manned lunar exploration mission has been determined recently, and the new generation of manned spacecraft has been named "Mengzhou", the lunar lander was named "Lan Yue".
After the construction of the Chinese space station is completed, landing on the moon has become the next goal for the Chinese to explore space.
As the lunar landing phase of the manned lunar exploration project is fully launched, the naming of new aircraft for manned lunar exploration is also on the agenda.
In August 2023, the China Manned Space Engineering Office launched a solicitation for new aircraft names for manned lunar exploration missions from the public, which attracted widespread attention and enthusiastic participation from the whole society, and received a total of applications from aerospace, science and technology, cultural communication and other fields. Nearly 2,000 contributions came from organizations and people from all walks of life.
After expert selection and review, the new generation manned spacecraft was named "Mengzhou" and the lunar lander was named "Moon".
The name of the new aircraft has distinctive Chinese characteristics, characteristics of the times and cultural characteristics.
"Dream Boat" means that manned lunar exploration carries the Chinese people's space dream, starting a new journey of exploring space, and also reflects the systematic inheritance with the Shenzhou and Tianzhou spacecraft families; the new generation of manned spacecraft includes the moon landing version and the subsequent execution of the space station There are two models of the near-Earth version of the mission. Among them, the moon landing version adopts "Mengzhou Y" (the name of the spacecraft + the capital initial letter of the syllable of "月").
"Holding the Moon" is taken from Chairman Mao's poem "You can go up to nine heavens to embrace the moon", which demonstrates the Chinese people's boldness and confidence in exploring the universe and landing on the moon.
Previously, the new generation manned launch vehicle has been named "Long March 10".
At present, the Mengzhou spacecraft, lunar lander and Long March 10 carrier rocket have fully entered the preliminary prototype development stage, and all work is progressing smoothly.
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