Space station lays solid foundation for crewed lunar landing: spokesman

China's space station missions will lay a solid foundation for its first crewed lunar landing in 2030, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said on Saturday.

China's Shenzhou-23 crewed spaceship is scheduled to blast off at 23:08 Sunday (Beijing Time) from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China, the agency announced at a press conference at the center on Saturday.

Shenzhou-23 is the seventh crewed mission in the application and development stage of China's space station, and the 40th flight mission of China's manned space program.

China's space station provides a strong support for the crewed lunar exploration program in three aspects, said CMSA spokesman Zhang Jingbo at the press conference.

"Our space station missions have trained a team of astronauts who have performed space missions and gained rich spaceflight experience, and can serve as a solid talent pool for the selection of astronaut crew for the follow-up lunar landing mission," said Zhang.

"Our space station has been operating steadily in orbit for nearly four years now, and it has deployed and verified a number of key technologies needed for crewed lunar landing. For instance, the newly launched Tianzhou-10 cargo craft mission is loaded with an experiment on how liquid sloshes inside a surface tension tank amid microgravity. This is to verify the precision and rationality of technical specifications we set for manned lunar landing spacecraft," he said.

China is targeting a crewed lunar landing by 2030. The development of major flight products, including the Long March-10 carrier rocket, the Mengzhou crewed spacecraft, and the Lanyue lunar lander, is proceeding smoothly.

"The new near-Earth manned space-ground transportation system, which includes the Long March-10A carrier rocket and the Mengzhou spacecraft in carrying space station missions, shares integrated design and development for the Long March-10 carrier rocket and the Mengzhou spacecraft needed for lunar exploration. Through verifications in multiple space station flight missions over the next two years, we will comprehensively boost relevant technical maturity and task reliability, so as to lay a solid foundation for China's first crewed lunar landing," Zhang said.

"In addition, the long-term in-orbit operation of the space station can provide more and larger platforms in space to support future missions like lunar research and development as well as deep-space exploration," he said.

Space station lays solid foundation for crewed lunar landing: spokesman

Russia said its forces have hit Ukrainian targets like defense industrial enterprises and energy facilities, while Ukraine reported strikes over major Russian facilities.

The Russian Defense Ministry on Saturday said in its latest report that over the past 24 hours, its forces struck Ukrainian defense industrial enterprises, energy facilities used by the Ukrainian military, as well as assembly and storage sites for long-range drones. The military also reported hitting temporary deployment points of Ukrainian forces and foreign mercenaries in 142 locations.

Russian air defense units shot down eight guided aerial bombs and 800 fixed-wing drones during the same period, according to the report.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported on Saturday that its troops conducted precision strikes on multiple key Russian targets, including an oil terminal on the Black Sea coast. Ukrainian strikes also targeted logistical warehouses, ammunition depots, and communication nodes on the eastern front.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday said in a social media post that Ukrainian forces carried out a long-range strike against a major chemical plant in Russia's Perm Krai region.

The death toll from a Ukrainian attack on a college dormitory in Starobelsk in the Luhansk region has risen to 21, with many others being injured, the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situation said on Saturday.

The ministry said on Friday a large-scale overnight drone assault hit the campus of Starobelsk College, affiliated with Luhansk Padagogical University, causing the collapse of the student dormitory building.

A total of 86 students aged 14 to 18, along with one staff member, were inside the building at the time of the strike, said local health authorities.

The Russian-appointed governor of the Luhansk region declared May 24 and 25 as days of morning for the victims of the attack.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that the attack was "not an accident," claiming that "there are no military facilities, security service sites or related agencies near the dormitory."

Ukraine's General Staff denied targeting civilian infrastructure, saying its forces strike only military facilities and objects used for military purposes in accordance with international humanitarian law.

Russia says targeting Ukrainian defense enterprises, Ukraine reports strikes on major Russian facilities