China Plans to Open Space Station for International Collaboration, Advances Lunar and Mars Missions

In a report by China Central Television (CCTV), Yang highlighted that one of two Pakistani astronaut candidates, currently training with Chinese astronauts, will participate in a short-duration mission as a payload specialist later this year.

So far, 27 Chinese astronauts across 11 crews have been sent to work on the Tiangong space station, including the Shenzhou-23 team, which arrived at the facility in late May.

Additionally, China is actively working towards landing astronauts on the Moon by 2030. According to China Daily, the nation is transitioning from planning to implementation, with significant construction and hardware testing in progress at the Wenchang Space Launch Center in Hainan province. This includes developing ground support systems necessary for the lunar landing missions.

The CMSA has noted that major flight vehicles are under development, including the Long March 10 heavy-lift carrier rocket, the Mengzhou crew spacecraft, and the Lanyue lunar lander. Critical tests, such as pad aborts and takeoff simulations, have already been successfully completed for these vehicles.

Chinese astronauts are being trained for lunar expeditions, where their primary tasks will involve operating a Tansuo rover for scientific missions and collecting lunar samples.

As part of its deep-space exploration efforts, China plans to collect Martian samples and return them to Earth by around 2028 through the Tianwen 3 mission. The goal is to search for signs of life on Mars. Sun Zezhou, an expert in deep-space exploration at the China Academy of Space Technology, emphasized the challenges involved and the importance of overcoming initial obstacles during technological tests.

He remarked on the close similarity of Mars to Earth, indicating that understanding Mars could yield insights into our own planet's evolutionary history.