China's Lanyue lander is set to carry out an uncrewed flight as part of a rehearsal plan for a future crewed moon landing, according to 新京报. The plan was disclosed alongside the news that two Chinese astronauts are expected to land on the lunar surface, a detail reported by 凤凰网.
The Lanyue lander and the Mengzhou crewed spacecraft are both scheduled to make their first flights, 新浪财经 reports. The two vehicles are central to China's push toward putting people on the moon.
The disclosures emerged around the seventh Conference on Manned Spaceflight Academic Exchange, held in Beijing, which 中国网 reports drew more than 800 experts and scholars to discuss advances at the field's frontier.
The rehearsal concept suggests China intends to test hardware and procedures without crew aboard before committing astronauts to a landing attempt. The uncrewed Lanyue flight would serve as a step in that sequence, though officials have not indicated a date for either the test flight or the crewed mission in the material available.
Coverage of the program has also begun to consider its commercial side, with 中华网 asking whether business activity tied to a Chinese moon landing is already taking shape on the ground.
What to watch next: official announcements on the timing of the Lanyue uncrewed flight and the Mengzhou spacecraft's first mission, which will indicate how close the crewed landing is to becoming a reality.
