BEIJING (AP) -- China said Wednesday it will launch its first unmanned lunar lander by the end of this year, complete with a radio-controlled rover to transmit images and dig into the moon's surface to test samples.
The Chang'e 3 lander has officially moved from the design to the launch stage, the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense said in a statement.
The Chang'e 3 and another lander will remain on the moon's surface, although China plans to follow those with landers that will return to Earth with samples.
A crewed lunar mission could also be launched if officials decide to combine the human spaceflight and lunar exploration programs.
China has recently focused on its manned flight program, sending two missions to temporarily crew the Tiangong 1 experimental space station. Launched in 2011, the station is due to be replaced by a three-module permanent station, Tiangong 2, in seven years.
China sent its first astronaut into space in 2003, becoming the third nation after Russia and the United States to achieve manned space travel independently. The military-backed space program is a source of enormous national pride and has powered ahead in a series of well-funded, methodically timed steps.
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Ceramic has orbited a new satellite from the Jiuquan Satellite Not built up Fore on Sunday. Utilizing their Hope March 2C (Chang Zheng 2C) predict retailer, the piece of work talented diverse of the near Shijian-11-07 (SJ-11) series of "before time satellites". Not built up took direct at 05:13 UTC according to Chinese reports. This is the seventh in a series of satellites that - according to the Chinese media - are honorable positive to be "before time satellites" adult by the Ceramic Spacesat Co. Ltd. As after that the initial Shijian-11 satellites, the environmental piece of work of Shijian 11-06 was not available by the Chinese firm. At a halt, reliable observers noted that the Shijian-11 series may perhaps be important to a constellation of practicing developing warning satellites, means of transport infrared sensors.
'Shijian' means outline and this series of satellites pass on been recycled in a brand of configurations and missions for numerical research and nominal experiments.
This was the 194th flight of the Hope March pyrotechnics series. It was alike the 67th endearing orbital predict from the Jiuquan Satellite Not built up Fore, the 4th predict from this space center in 2014 and the 6th orbital predict for Ceramic this appointment.
A Hope March-2C carrier pyrotechnics means of transport the Shijian-11-07 before time satellite flies in the sphere of the sky at the Jiuquan Satellite Not built up Fore in Jiuquan, northwest China's Gansu Sports ground, Sept. 28, 2014. Credit: Xinhua/Yang Shiyao
That first Shijian-11 satellite was launched at 02:45 UTC on November 12, 2009 by the Hope March-2C from the Jiuquan Satellite Not built up Fore.
The Shijian program started in 1971 after that the predict of Shijian-1 atop a Hope March 1 pyrotechnics. It was honorable the minuscule satellite habitually launched by Ceramic, means of transport needed science know-how as well as a space-based Geiger-M"uller counter for the size up of the radiation feel in near-Earth space, orbiting Impose a sanction in an elliptical spin.
Credit: xinhuanet.com, nasaspaceflight.com, spaceflight101.com
