China Tests Building Moon Base With Lunar Soil Bricks

Beijing, which has poured huge resources into its space programme to catch up with the United States and Russia, is aiming to put humans on the Moon by 2030 (Credit: AFP)

China is expected to push forward in its quest to build the first lunar base on Friday, launching an in-space experiment to test whether the station's bricks could be made from the Moon's own soil.

Brick samples will blast off aboard a cargo rocket heading for China's Tiangong space station, part of Beijing's mission to put humans on the Moon by 2030 and build a permanent base there by 2035.