The China National Space Administration (CNSA) is the national space agency of the People’s Republic of China, responsible for the Chinese space programme including the Tiangong space station, the Mir-Tian Space Station (MTSS) merger, and the Chang’e lunar exploration programme. CNSA Administrator Zhang Kejian announced the Tiangong station in September 2017, following China’s exclusion from the International Space Station by US legislation. By March 2023, Tiangong had been formally merged with the Soviet Mir complex to form the MTSS — a combined orbital platform of approximately 1,840 cubic metres pressurised volume with crew capacity of 12. The Chang’e-10 mission (14 June 2029) placed Chinese taikonauts on the lunar surface for the first time — Commander Liu Biao, Mission Specialist Wang Fang, and Lunar Module Pilot Chen Haotian at the Shackleton Crater rim, south polar region — making China the second nation to achieve crewed lunar landing. External analysts, including The Atlantic’s Eleanor Marsh in her January 2030 feature on the geopolitical implications of lunar helium-3, characterise the Chang’e programme as fundamentally a systematic industrial site survey — each mission building toward resource extraction infrastructure rather than flags-and-footprints prestige. A subsequent mission (Chang’e-11) is scheduled for Q2 2031.
The establishment of Guanghan Base at the Shackleton Crater rim in November 2034 — constructed via orbital assembly using Tiangong-derived modules — made China the second nation to operate a permanent lunar surface installation. Guanghan operates a helium-3 extraction pilot facility, water ISRU, and a BN-L1 derivative reactor, providing approximately 310 kWe to a continuously occupied facility with 115 m³ habitable volume.