Forgot your password?
China's Space Program
Issue 43, Ocotber 28, 2007
On Tuesday, October 23, 2007, the website ‘Chinanews.cn’ has it that China is planning to launch its first moon orbiter from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan Province. "The satellite will be launched between October 24 and 26 and our first choice is around 6 p.m. on October 24," a spokesman for the China National Space Administration (CNSA) said. The circumlunar satellite has been named Chang'e-1 after the legendary Chinese Goddess that flew to the moon. The lunar orbiter will enter the earth-moon transfer orbit on October 31 and arrive at the moon's orbit on November 5. It will relay the first picture of the moon in late November and will then continue scientific explorations of the moon for a year.
The orbiter launch will mark the first phase of the China's three-stage moon mission that will lead to a moon landing and the launching of a moon rover in and around 2012. In the third phase, another rover will land on the moon and return to earth with lunar soil and stone samples for scientific research around 2017.
China launched the human-piloted spacecraft in October 2003, making it only the third country in the world after the Soviet Union and the United States to have sent men into space. In October 2005, China completed its second manned space flight, with two astronauts on board.
China hopes to become the 17th nation to join the International Space Station (ISS) project, Vice Minister of Science and Technology Li Xueyong said on the sidelines of the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China last week. The Chinese government has been pursuing a policy of peaceful use of airspace, Li said.
On October 24, 2007, Chinanews.cn has it that China's first moon orbiter, Chang'e-1 blasted off on a Long March 3A carrier rocket from the No. 3 launching tower in the Xichang Satellite Launch Center of eastern Sichuan Province at 6:05 p.m. on October 24.
Chinese space experts, technicians and other staffs along with the experts from Japan, Germany and other countries and millions of Chinese domestic audience across the country watched the launching of the Chang'e-1, Xinhua News Agency reported.
Chang'e-1 is expected to enter earth-moon transfer orbit on October 31 and arrive at the moon's orbit on November 5, according to Xinhua.
