{"id":663329,"date":"2026-05-25T02:30:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T02:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/663329\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T02:30:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T02:30:09","slug":"china-merges-lunar-programmes-as-race-to-moon-with-us-heats-up-after-latest-spacex-launch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/663329\/","title":{"rendered":"China merges lunar programmes as race to moon with US heats up after latest SpaceX launch"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">As the race to send humans back to the moon heats up, China has been fine-tuning its plans.<\/p>\n<p>On Saturday \u2013 the day after the <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/news\/world\/united-states-canada\/article\/3354595\/spacex-launches-its-biggest-most-beefed-starship-yet-test-flight?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">US company SpaceX<\/a> successfully launched its largest and most powerful Starship \u2013 the China Manned Space Agency unveiled further details about its plans to integrate its crewed and uncrewed lunar landing programmes into a single mission.The purpose was \u201cto fully leverage the technical foundations and practical experience accumulated over decades through crewed space programmes and the <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/news\/china\/science\/article\/3291734\/moon-rocks-chinas-change-6-mission-test-apollo-views-lunar-magnetic-field?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Chang\u2019e lunar exploration missions<\/a>\u201d, agency spokesman Zhang Jingbo told a press conference at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Zhou Yaqiang, a senior engineer at the China Manned Space Agency, told reporters that the process of \u201ccombining experiences and expertise\u201d from the various missions was \u201cprogressing smoothly\u201d.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">When asked about the US-China moon race, Zhou reiterated the official Chinese position, saying that the country was committed to the peaceful use of space.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cWe carry out the project of crewed lunar exploration under the established plan. We are not competing with other countries in space. Our crewed lunar programme is also not subject to interference from any factors,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cWhen Chinese astronauts land on the moon in the future, this will be a great feat for all of humanity. It will help increase our understanding of space.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the race to send humans back to the moon heats up, China has been fine-tuning its plans.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":663330,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[504,17179,25428,150420,150421,25388,7042,718,42143,79,193,1513,1514,74158,290178],"class_list":["post-663329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-artemis","tag-blue-origin","tag-change","tag-china-manned-space-agency","tag-jiuquan-satellite-launch-centre","tag-long-march","tag-moon","tag-nasa","tag-orion","tag-science","tag-space","tag-spacex","tag-starship","tag-tiangong","tag-zhou-yaqiang"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=663329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/663330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=663329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=663329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=663329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}