China Moon Landing Plan Adds Uncrewed Lander and Capsule Tests

China’s Moon landing plan now includes a full dress rehearsal without astronauts. China will fly both its Mengzhou crew spacecraft and its Lanyue lunar lander on uncrewed missions before it attempts a crewed landing, state broadcaster CCTV reported on October 31 from the 7th Manned Spaceflight Academic Conference. The crewed landing itself is still targeted for before 2030, and no dates have been given for the test flights.

The update builds on an October 22 notice from the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA), which said an uncrewed Lanyue flight is planned ahead of the crewed mission and opened a call for experiments to ride along on it.

How the China Moon Landing Mission Will Work

The architecture uses two Long March 10 rockets. One launches the Lanyue lander and the other launches Mengzhou, and the two spacecraft meet and dock in lunar orbit. Mengzhou is designed to carry three astronauts between Earth and lunar orbit, while Lanyue takes two of them down to the surface and back up again.

According to Chinese media reports on the CMSA notice, Lanyue weighs about 26 tonnes and consists of a crew lander and a propulsion module. The lander passed its first integrated landing and takeoff test in August 2025 at a test site in Huailai, Hebei province.

What the Uncrewed Flights Will Test

Flying the hardware empty first means China can run through the riskiest steps of the mission, including lunar orbit rendezvous, docking, descent, touchdown and liftoff from the surface, before anyone is on board. CCTV’s report lists the next milestones as a technical verification flight of the Long March 10 rocket, the first flights of Mengzhou and Lanyue, and the Chang’e-7 robotic mission to the lunar south pole region.

China has not said when the uncrewed Lanyue mission will launch or where it will land. Earlier reports had pointed to 2027 for a lander test, but CMSA has not confirmed a date.

Lanyue Payload Call: 50 kg and 100 W

The CMSA payload call is open to Chinese government bodies, research institutes, universities, companies and industry groups. Experiments flying on the uncrewed lander can weigh up to 50 kg in total and generally use no more than 100 watts. There is no fee to fly, but teams must fund development and integration themselves. Proposals are due by March 1, 2027.

What It Means for the Race With NASA

The plan puts China’s program on a similar step-by-step path to NASA’s. The US agency is preparing Artemis III as an Earth orbit docking test with commercial landers before a crewed landing on a later mission.

Both countries are now aiming to put astronauts on the lunar surface before the end of the decade, a contest we have followed since China’s earlier Moon program milestones.

NASA is also juggling older assets, and recently asked companies how to save the Hubble Space Telescope. For now, the next concrete sign of China’s progress will be the first flight of the crew-rated Long March 10 and Mengzhou.