China’s First Crewed Moon Landing: Three Astronauts, Two on the Surface

October 31 — The seventh Academic Conference on Human Spaceflight opened today (31 October) at Beihang University in Beijing. According to the Global Times, China plans to land astronauts on the Moon before 2030, using a “two launches, one landing” approach.

Wang Xiang, deputy chief designer of China’s human spaceflight programme and chief designer of its lunar exploration programme, told the conference that the first crewed lunar mission will use a lunar-orbit rendezvous mode: two Long March 10 rockets, the first sending the lander to lunar orbit, then a crewed spacecraft launched to rendezvous and dock with it. The astronauts enter the lander, separate from the spacecraft and descend to the surface to carry out scientific work.

After completing the mission, the astronauts ascend from the surface in the lander, dock with the spacecraft a second time in lunar orbit, and return to Earth aboard the spacecraft.

Wang said the first crewed lunar mission plans a crew of three, two of whom will land on the surface.

As reported earlier, China unveiled its lunar suit design in September 2024. It provides life support and work support during surface excursions and protects against the vacuum, temperature extremes, lunar dust and radiation; astronauts can walk, climb, drive and conduct surveys in it.

Under the plan, between 2028 and 2030 China will carry out three uncrewed lunar-orbit verification missions and one crewed landing from the Wenchang launch site, marking the programme’s move from low Earth orbit into cislunar space.

The conference opened on 31 October 2026 in Beijing. More than 800 experts and scholars from human spaceflight fields gathered under the theme “wisdom converging on the galaxy, digital intelligence empowering high-quality human spaceflight”, focusing on frontier technology, engineering practice and development needs.

The conference is hosted by the China Manned Space Agency and organised by the China Manned Space Engineering Operation and Management Support Centre and Beihang University, with support from the Technology and Engineering Centre for Space Utilisation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Beijing Aerospace Flight Control Centre and the China Astronaut Research and Training Centre. Representatives of the programme’s overall and system-level chief designers, participating institutions, universities and research bodies attended.

The two-day event includes an opening ceremony, keynote reports and academic sessions. Eleven academicians, leading experts and astronaut representatives gave keynotes on space station operation and applications, lunar science and exploration, and digitalisation in spaceflight. The academic sessions cover common human spaceflight technology, the low-Earth-orbit space station and lunar exploration across 15 forums; 364 papers were submitted and 15 authors will receive awards.