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China Plans to Launch Lunar Probe

Posted on: Monday, 22 October 2007, 12:00 CDT

By AUDRA ANG

BEIJING - China will launch its first lunar probe this week in a key step toward building the basis for future space exploration, an official said Monday.

The launch window for the Chang'e 1 orbiter has been set for Oct. 24-26, with the prime time being Wednesday at 6 p.m. (1000 GMT), said Li Guoping, a spokesman for the China National Space Administration.

"The orbiting of the moon is a high-tech project of self-innovation," Li told reporters. "It will set the technological foundation for the development of China's space exploration."

The move comes weeks after regional rival Japan said that its probe was in high orbit over the moon and all was going well as it began a yearlong project to map and study the lunar surface - a big leap forward in Asia's undeclared space race.

The rivalry is likely to be joined soon by India, which plans to send its own lunar probe into space in April.

The Chang'e 1 would be launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan province in southwest China, Li said.

"Inspections of the satellite and the rocket have been completed. The test results are normal and they fully fulfill the technical requirements," he said, reading from a prepared statement. He did not take any questions.

After the Chang'e is launched, it will orbit the earth while technical adjustments are made, and by Nov. 5 it will enter the moon's orbit, Li said.

The goal of the project - named after a legendary Chinese goddess who flew to the moon - is to analyze chemical and mineral composition and to explore the characteristics of the lunar surface, he said. It will be the inaugural mission for an aerospace engineering system and a way to "accumulate experience for later exploration," Li said.

The satellite will use stereo cameras and X-ray spectrometers to map three-dimensional images of the surface and study the moon's dust.

It will transmit its first photo back to China in the second half of November. "Then it will work for one year of scientific exploration," Li said.

China sent shock waves through the region in 2003, when it became the first Asian country to put its own astronauts into space. This year, China also blasted an old satellite into oblivion with a land-based anti-satellite missile, the first such test ever conducted by any nation, including the United States and Russia.

"The mission has a very strong scientific emphasis," said Sun Kwok, chair professor of physics and dean of science at the University of Hong Kong. "It's not just about technology. It's more than just launching a satellite, it's more than putting the first satellite in orbit."

"It's very good for China being a major power," said Kwok, who is on an advisory panel of Chinese scientists who have been invited to help with data analysis on the Chang'e's findings. "It shows that China is moving more and more into the international space community."

Source: Associated Press/AP Online

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