Beijing, 26/4: China will start building relay satellites that by 2030 will act as a communication bridge between missions to the Moon and beyond, and ground operations on Earth, Chinese state media reported on Wednesday.
A pilot of the satellite constellation will support China’s ongoing lunar exploration programme and the building of the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS), the official Xinhua news agency reported, citing Wu Yanhua, chief designer of China’s deep space exploration project.
To kick off the building of the constellation – called Queqiao-2, or Magpie Bridge-2, named after a bridge made up of magpies in a Chinese myth – a communications relay satellite between the far side of the Moon and Earth will be launched in 2024 to support uncrewed lunar missions this decade.
That year, China plans to launch the Chang’e-6 mission to retrieve lunar samples from an ancient basin in the far side of the Moon