China’s manned space agency announced on Sunday that it is postponing a research moon mission. This mission is crucial to Beijing’s goal of landing astronauts on the lunar surface by 2030. The delay comes less than two weeks after a rare failure during a launch, raising concerns about the program’s timeline.
The agency said after a “comprehensive assessment” the mission, which involved sending the Chang’e-7 lunar probe on a Long March 5 carrier rocket, “does not meet launch conditions and cannot take place during the planned window this year”.
The country is aiming to land astronauts on the Moon before 2030, a race in which the United States is also competing with its Artemis programme.
The mission — meant to search for water on the moon’s south pole — was scheduled to depart either over the weekend or Monday, according to media reports. Last week, the agency said the probe and carrier rocket had been moved to the takeoff area at Wenchang Space Launch Center in southern Hainan province. The failed mission involved a Long March 7A carrier rocket, which had lifted off from the Wenchang Space Launch Site, state news agency Xinhua said at the time. Beijing has ploughed billions of dollars into its space programme in recent years to achieve what President Xi Jinping calls the country’s “space dream”. China successfully landed a reusable rocket for the first time in July, according to its space agency, marking a major step in its space ambitions and in reducing launch costs.
