According to the China Manned Space Engineering Office, after public solicitation and selection, recently, the name of the new vehicle for China's manned lunar exploration mission has been determined, the new generation of manned spacecraft named "Dream Boat", and the lunar lander named "Lanyue".
After the construction of China's space station is completed, landing on the moon has become the next goal for Chinese to explore space. With the full launch of the lunar landing phase of the manned lunar exploration project, the naming of new vehicles for manned lunar exploration has also been put on the agenda.
In August 2023, the China Manned Space Engineering Office launched a solicitation of names for new manned lunar exploration missions for the public, which attracted widespread attention and enthusiastic participation from the whole society, and received nearly 2,000 submissions from organizations and people from all walks of life in the fields of aerospace, science and technology, and cultural communication. After expert selection and review, the new generation of manned spacecraft was named "Dream Boat" and the lunar lander was named "Lanyue".
The name of the new aircraft has distinctive Chinese characteristics, characteristics of the times and cultural characteristics. "Dream Boat" means that manned lunar exploration carries the space dream of Chinese, starts a new journey of space exploration, and also reflects the system inheritance with the Shenzhou and Tianzhou spacecraft families; The new generation of manned spacecraft includes two models: the lunar version and the near-earth version of the subsequent space station missions, of which the lunar version adopts the "Dream Boat Y" (the spacecraft name + the capital initial of the syllable of the word "month"). "Catching the Moon" is taken from the poem "Can Go to the Moon in Nine Days", highlighting the heroism and confidence of the Chinese in exploring the universe and landing on the moon. Previously, the new generation of manned launch vehicles had been named "Long March 10".
At present, the Mengzhou spacecraft, the Lanyue lander, and the Long March-10 carrier rocket have fully entered the stage of initial sample development, and all work is progressing smoothly.
*: CCTV news client.
Process edit: u032