Reuters reported on 2026-04-02 that China’s crewed lunar programme is still targeting an astronaut landing by 2030, with the agency simultaneously advancing precursor missions for the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS). Separate Reuters coverage on 2026-04-08 said China plans to use two Long March-10 rockets for the landing architecture: one for a crewed spacecraft and one for a lunar lander, with the vehicles docking in lunar orbit before two astronauts descend to the surface and return. Reuters also noted that the Mengzhou spacecraft can carry up to 7 astronauts, although China had not yet published the final crew size for the 2030 mission.
The technical signal is clear: China is building a modular lunar campaign that combines heavy-lift launch, orbital rendezvous, precision landing, and repeated surface operations, all prerequisites for sustained habitation rather than a single flags-and-footprints mission. Reuters’ later reporting in 2026 said Chang’e-7 and Chang’e-8 are meant to lay groundwork for a permanently inhabited research station, with Chang’e-8 planned around 2029 and the ILRS basic station targeted for around 2035. For the Ark, this matters because the first nation to field reliable south-pole logistics, communications, and resource-utilization systems will shape access to water ice, power siting, and operational norms for the lunar south pole.
The Ark team should track three things: Long March-10 flight readiness, Chang’e-7/8 landing timelines, and any ILRS partner-state expansion that could accelerate infrastructure sharing or competition. Priority research areas are lunar south-pole resource mapping, docking and transfer standards, and compatible life-support and power interfaces that could allow future Ark systems to plug into a Chinese-led lunar infrastructure stack. If China executes the 2030 landing and follows with ILRS buildup on the 2035 timeline, the Moon’s first durable civil infrastructure layer will be set before many independent lunar settlements mature.