China is on track to launch its second lunar satellite by year\u2019s end, as the country pursues its plans for a manned mission to the moon by 2020, state media said Friday.<\/p>\n
Preparations for the launch of the Chang\u2019e-2 probe, which will go into orbit within 15 kilometres (nine miles) of the moon, are going smoothly, People\u2019s Daily said, citing Wu Weiren, a senior engineer overseeing the programme.<\/p>\n
The Chang\u2019e-2 mission \u201cis currently undergoing pre-launch testing and preparations \u2014 the plan is to carry out a trial flight mission by the end of the year,\u201d the paper quoted Wu as saying.<\/p>\n
Space programme officials had said previously that the mission would be launched in October, but no precise date has been given.<\/p>\n
The lunar probe will test soft-landing and other technologies in preparation for the launch of the Chang\u2019e-3, which is slated for launch in 2013 and aims to be China\u2019s first unmanned landing on the moon, the report said.<\/p>\n
The Chang\u2019e programme, named after a mythical Chinese goddess who flew to the moon, is seen as an effort to put China\u2019s space exploration programme on a par with those of the United States and Russia.<\/p>\n
China launched Chang\u2019e-1, which orbited the moon and took high-resolution pictures of the lunar surface, in October 2007 as part of China\u2019s ambitious three-stage moon mission.<\/p>\n
China\u2019s lunar programme hopes to bring a moon rock sample back to earth in 2017, with a manned mission foreseen in around 2020, according to state media.<\/p>\n
Chinese scientists ultimately plan to build an observatory on the surface of the moon, previous reports said.<\/p>\n
China became the world\u2019s third nation to put a man in space independently \u2014 after the United States and Russia \u2014 when Yang Liwei piloted the one-man Shenzhou-5 space mission in 2003.<\/p>\n
In September 2008, the Shenzhou-7, piloted by three astronauts, carried out China\u2019s first space walk.<\/p>\n
The Americans have achieved the only manned lunar missions, making six trips from 1969 to 1972.<\/p>\n
Beijing has other significant Asian competitors to reckon with as it vies to become the second nation to put a man on the moon.<\/p>\n
India landed a lunar probe in 2008, and a top official said in January it was targeting a manned space mission in 2016. Japan, meanwhile, launched its first lunar satellite in June last year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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