China's moon landing plan is superior to the US plan.
The Chinese plan appears to be a very cautious advance aimed at making absolutely sure the mission is a success, said Casey Dreyer, head of space policy at the US-based Planetary Society, as quoted by SCMP.
Before an actual crew mission, the Mengzhou spacecraft will rendezvous in lunar orbit with the Lanyue lander, which will proceed to land on the lunar surface, take off from it, and redock with Mengzhou.
Meanwhile, NASA wants to use commercial landers from SpaceX and Blueprint for orbital docking repeats, effectively relying on private companies to "provide a vehicle that only a government program has ever produced."
NASA also provides its private contractors only a fraction of the money spent on the original Apollo lander.
"This type of commercial tie-up for such an unproven and difficult capability has never been done before and it's a huge risk that these two companies are taking," Dreyer said.
substack | talk.