China Unveils Crewed Moon Landing Plan With Two Long March-10 Rockets

The LM-10 stands 92.5 metres tall and weighs about 2,189 tonnes at liftoff, with capacity to send more than 27 tonnes to the Moon. Presentation documents circulated since the conference suggest a test sequence: an uncrewed Mengzhou to the Tiangong station in early 2027, a first full LM-10 flight with an empty Lanyue in 2028, and a dress rehearsal with automatic docking above the Moon in 2029. Beijing has not officially confirmed those years.

No crewed lunar flyby, unlike Artemis

China has already run ground and pad tests. On 6 August 2025 a Lanyue unit completed a landing and takeoff on simulated lunar soil in Hebei province, and on 11 February 2026 a first-stage-only LM-10 let a Mengzhou capsule test an emergency ejection and make China's first splashdown of a crew-capable capsule. Still, neither the rocket, the spacecraft nor the lander has flown in final form.

In the US, Artemis II completed a crewed lunar flyby in April 2026. Artemis III in 2027 is to rehearse dockings in low Earth orbit with SpaceX and Blue Origin test landers, and a landing is targeted for 2028 with Artemis IV. China's plan skips a crewed circumlunar flight, instead verifying as much as possible in low orbit and flying hardware uncrewed first.

For the first time since the Apollo era, two crewed landing programmes are aiming at dates this close: 2028 for Washington, no later than late 2029 for Beijing. Both remain exposed to delays, and 2027 looks decisive, with Orion's docking tests and the first orbital attempts of the LM-10 family.