China wants a lunar satellite constellation to support deep space missions

BAKU, Azerbaijan — China’s space authorities want to build an expansive, three-stage communication, navigation and remote sensing network to facilitate deep space operations.

China is working on a series of lunar and deep space missions this decade, along with a planetary defense test, and, in the 2030s, aims to establish a lunar surface research station, Xi Xiangyu, an engineer at the System Research Institute under China’s Deep Space Exploration Laboratory (DSEL), said during a presentation at the 74th International Astronautical Congress (IAC) here in Baku, Oct. 2….