China merges lunar programmes as race to moon with US heats up after latest SpaceX launch

As the race to send humans back to the moon heats up, China has been fine-tuning its plans.
On Saturday – the day after the US company SpaceX successfully launched its largest and most powerful Starship – the China Manned Space Agency unveiled further details about its plans to integrate its crewed and uncrewed lunar landing programmes into a single mission.
The purpose was “to fully leverage the technical foundations and practical experience accumulated over decades through crewed space...