Announcement: CGTN - Africa2Moon selected for the Chang'e-8 Mission

The Foundation for Space Development Africa is thrilled to announce a significant milestone in its flagship project, Africa2Moon. Eleven years ago, the vision was born to develop a radio telescope array on the far side of the Moon, with the ultimate goal of deploying 55 antennas—one for each African nation. Today, Africa2Moon takes a giant leap forward as the Africa2Moon Technology Demonstrator has been selected as a payload on the Chang’e-8 mission to the Moon’s south pole. The announcement was made by the China National Space Administration on the 24th April 2025, during the China Space Day inauguration ceremony in Shanghai.

In 2023, the team submitted a proposal for the Technology Demonstrator, consisting of four autonomous antennas that will operate together as a single array. These antennas will observe low-frequency radio signals that are generally opaque from Earth due to atmospheric interference. This project will establish the first African lunar mission, and the first radio astronomy array on the Moon’s surface, enabling unprecedented scientific discoveries from the lunar environment.