Report: China Developing Spaceship for Lunar Mission

China is developing an advanced new spaceship capable of both flying in low-Earth orbit and landing on the moon, according to state media. The newspaper Science and Technology Daily cited spaceship engineer Zhang Bainian as saying the new craft would be recoverable and have room for multiple astronauts, the AP reports. While no other details were given in the Tuesday report, Zhang raised as a comparison the Orion spacecraft being developed by NASA and the European Space Agency. The agency hopes Orion will carry astronauts into space by 2023.

China's Shenzhou space capsule used on all six of its crewed missions is based on Russia's Soyuz and is capable of carrying three astronauts in its re-entry module. China came late to crewed space flight, launching its first man into space in 2003, but has advanced rapidly since then. In its most recent crewed mission, two astronauts spent a month aboard a Chinese space station late last year. A fully functioning, permanently crewed space station is on course to begin operations in around five years and a manned lunar mission has been suggested for the future. (More China stories.)