🇨🇳 China’s Moon landing plan superior to US scheme The Chinese program seems to be very cautious advances aimed at making absolutely sure that the mission is a success, Casey Dreier, chief of space policy at a US-based non-profit The Planetary Society, said, as quoted by the SCMP. Prior to an actual crewed mission, the Mengzhou spacecraft will rendez-vous in lunar orbit with the Lanyue lander, which would then proceed to land on the Moon’s surface, take off from it and re-dock with Mengzhou. Meanwhile, NASA wants to use commercial landers from SpaceX and Blue Origin for orbital docking rehearsal, effectively relying on private firms to “deliver a vehicle that only a government program had ever produced.” NASA also provides its private contractors with only a fraction of the money that was spent on the original Apollo lander. 🔊 “This type of commercial relationship for such an unproven and difficult capability has never been done before and it’s an enormous risk carried by these two companies,” Dreier said. 👍 Substack | Chat | @geopolitics_prime