China in the race to the moon.

China has successfully tested the engine that will power its next super-powerful Long March 9 or Grand March 9 rocket, designed to send manned spacecraft to the moon and maybe Mars.

The Beijing Astronautical Experiments Technology Institute announced last Friday, September 30, that the three tests of the new YF79 engine that works with hydrogen and oxygen, which gives it a thrust force of approximately 100 tons, have been completed.

The engine will be used in the third stage of the Long March 9 rocket, this rocket was designed to send 15 to 50 tons of payload to the moon, which is enough to send a human mission to our natural satellite and equipment to establish a base as China also plans to do.

The rocket could also deliver 12 to 44 tons to Mars or lift 50 to 140 tons of payload into low-Earth orbit, which is used to build orbital space stations.

For power and capacity it would be the same level of competition as the Falcon Heavyd SpaceX that can carry up to 150 tons to low Earth orbit.

But when will the Chinese get to the moon? well initially they planned to take astronauts or taikonauts in 2030, but in January of this year 2022 according to a State Council document published by the official Xinhua news agency, that trip could be brought forward to 2027 and this would bring it closer to the date planned by the United States .

The United States initially announced its intention to return to the moon in 2024, in Currently there is already talk of 2025, although it is very possible that it will not be in that year either due to the delays that are accumulating today at the risk of the maximum activity of the solar cycle, which implies a greater risk of confronting astronauts with a very dangerous solar storm, so NASA's trip to the moon is likely to be pushed back to 2026 or 2027 around the same time that China might as well.

It is the new space race for the conquest of the moon and in the coming years we will see who is the winner.

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