Kyodo: China Denies Being in Space Race With Japan

Text of report in English by Japanese news agency Kyodo

Beijing, Aug. 17 Kyodo – China has dismissed suggestions that it is in a race with Japan to put a space probe in orbit around the Moon, state-run media reported Friday.

Hao Xifan, a senior official involved in China’s Moon programme, told the China Daily that the project’s aim is purely scientific achievement and that China is not competing with any country.

“We will follow our own plan,” he said.

Chinese space officials announced last week that preparations for the Chang’e I Lunar orbiter’s mission are complete, although no date has been set for its launch on a Long March 3-A rocket.

But the government-controlled China Daily said the probe would likely be put into orbit soon as launch testing has already been carried out.

Meanwhile, Japan’s space agency has announced it will launch its own lunar orbiter, SELENE, next month.

Chinese scientists say Chang’e I will spend a year orbiting the Moon, studying its soil and geology.

“China’s Moon probe is independent and developed by ourselves. After more than three years’ efforts, we have confidence in the project’s success. But there are many things we don’t know in terms of technology,” Hao said.

China’s next phase of lunar exploration involves putting a robot lunar rover on the surface of the Moon and returning it to Earth.

The ultimate aim is to launch a manned mission to the Moon within 15 years.

A senior US military official warned earlier this week that China’s increasingly sophisticated satellite and missile technology posed a threat to the nation’s security.

Lt. Gen. Kevin Campbell, head of the US Army’s Space and Missile Defence Command, said China’s successful destruction of one of its satellites with a missile in January was a worrying sign.

“It is not inconceivable that within about three years we can be challenged at a near peer level in a region,” he was quoted as saying by the French news agency AFP.

But China’s government has dismissed suggestions that its space programme is partly a means of developing military technology.

“The government has long made it clear the Moon mission, like its other space projects, is independent and solely for the purpose of the peaceful use of space,” the China Daily said Friday.

Japan and India have also announced ambitious lunar exploration programmes.

Japan hopes to put an astronaut on the Moon before 2026, while India wants to launch a manned spacecraft in orbit around the Earth by 2015.

Originally published by Kyodo News Service, Tokyo, in English 0513 17 Aug 07.

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