China reveals names of new manned Moon spaceship, lander
Moon lander is called “Lanyue,” meaning embracing the moon
China's space agency has unveiled the names of a new manned spaceship and a moon lander for its mission to send astronauts to the moon before 2030.
The new crew spaceship is named Mengzhou, which means dream vessel in Chinese, according to a statement from China Manned Space Agency Saturday. The moon lander is called Lanyue, meaning embracing the moon in Chinese. The names were selected from almost 2,000 proposals from the public since August of 2023.
According to the space agency's plan, two Long March-10 carrier rockets will send the Mengzhou spaceship and the Lanyue lander into lunar orbit. They will dock with each other, which will let astronauts enter the lander and land on the moon.
The spaceship, lander and carrier rocket are currently at the preliminary sample development stage, according to the agency.