The name of the new aircraft for China’s manned lunar exploration mission has been officially determined

　All work in the project to officially determine the name of the new aircraft for China's manned lunar exploration mission is progressing smoothly

　　CCTV News (News Broadcast): Today (February 24), the China Manned Space Engineering Office announced that the name of the new aircraft for China’s manned lunar exploration mission has been determined. The new generation of manned spacecraft will be named “Mengzhou”. The surface lander was named "Lan Yue" and it is planned to achieve the first Chinese landing on the moon before 2030.

At present, all works of the project are progressing smoothly.

　　The Mengzhou spacecraft is a new space-to-ground shuttle transport aircraft fully upgraded and developed based on the Shenzhou spacecraft. It consists of a return capsule and a service capsule and is reusable.

The lunar landing mission can carry 3 astronauts to and from the ground and the lunar orbit, and the low-Earth orbit mission can carry 7 astronauts to and from the ground and the space station.

　　The lunar lander is a newly developed vehicle for manned descent and ascent of extraterrestrial objects in my country. It consists of a lunar landing module and a propulsion module.

It is mainly used to transport astronauts between the lunar orbit and the lunar surface. It can carry two astronauts back and forth, and can carry lunar rover and scientific payload to support astronauts to carry out lunar surface residence and lunar surface activities.

　　The main process of landing on the moon is: using two Long March 10 carrier rockets to successively send the lunar lander and Mengzhou spacecraft to the Earth-moon transfer orbit, and the spacecraft and lander will rendezvous and dock in the lunar orbit.

The astronauts enter the lander and descend to the lunar surface to carry out scientific research activities. After completing the mission, they then take the lander to dock with the spacecraft, and the spacecraft returns the astronauts to the earth.

　　Our country has completed key technology research and program development work by the end of 2023.

At present, the overall technical plan for astronaut, measurement and control communications, landing site and other systems has been completed, and the construction of various new test and launch facilities and equipment at the Wenchang Space Launch Site will also be fully started.