Chang'e 8

Mm-hmm

... also this year is going to be the launch of the mission Chang'e 7, um, which the, with the long, Long March 5 launch vehicle, uh, which is going to put a lunar orbiter lander rover mini flying probe, uh, on the south pole of the moon.

Uh, in 2028 there's gonna be Chang'e 8, and that's the, that's theoretically when America's gonna have their moon landing.

Mm-hmm.

But you know how, like-

Like, there's people who are like, "We have severe doubts that 2028's gonna happen."

Yeah.

But some time before 2030 is going to be what I think is gonna be called Chang'e 9, uh, where the Taikonauts are going to be la- [laughs] landing on the planet, on the moon, um, through the Mengzhou crewed space launch.

So let's start with the basics.

In the year 2029, which is just a few years away, of course, a space machine called Chang'e 8 is going to land on the moon in the near future.

And this mission is being sent by China.

And guess what? Africa is going to have something on that mission.

The Chang'e-7 mission, planned for launch in 2026, will survey the lunar south pole with an orbiter, a lander and a mini flying probe focusing specifically on characterizing water ice deposits and testing technologies critical for sustained human activity.

Chang'e 8, expected around 2028 or 2029, will test in-situ resource utilization technologies, TVE, including a three-dimensional printing experiment using lunar soil laying the technical foundation for the International Lunar Research Station.

These robotic precursor missions serve the same function that NASA's robotic missions serve for Artemis.

They reduce risk and generate knowledge that enables future crewed operations.

I mean, I've only...

There's Chang'e 8 has been talked about a bit, but that's the last mission named Chang'e that we know about, right?

Yeah, that's right.

So that would be a in-situ resource utilization mission, so that's around 2029.