China's space station to continue powering up crewed moon landing efforts

JIUQUAN, May 23 (Xinhua) -- China's space station will step up support for the country's first crewed lunar landing, scheduled to be achieved by 2030, the China Manned Space Agency said on Saturday.

As a national space lab, the Chinese space station Tiangong, which means Heavenly Palace, has offered strong support in training a pool of taikonauts and in validating key technologies for future lunar missions, the agency said at a press conference ahead of the launch of the Shenzhou-23 mission, which is scheduled for Sunday night.

Zhang Jingbo, spokesperson of the agency, cited the newly launched cargo craft Tianzhou-10 as an example, noting that it carried an experimental payload aimed at examining the technology specifications on spacecraft for crewed moon landing missions.

Zhang also noted that the new-generation space-Earth crew transportation system for the space station, which comprises the carrier rocket Long March-10A and the spacecraft Mengzhou, is being designed and developed in an integrated manner alongside the crewed Long March-10 rocket and the Mengzhou lunar landing spaceship required for moon missions.

Over the next two years, multiple space station flights will put this system to the test, improving its technical readiness and reliability, Zhang added.

In addition, the long-term operation of the space station will provide "greater and more extensive" in-orbit platform services for future moon research and development as well as deep-space exploration missions, Zhang said.