drakend
24-10-2007, 13:01
China launches first lunar orbiter
BEIJING, Oct 24 (AFP) Oct 24, 2007
China on Wednesday launched its first lunar orbiter in an event broadcast on national television, with the mission a key step in the nation's plans to put a man on the moon by 2020.
Chang'e I took off around 6:05 pm (1005 GMT) from a launch centre in southwestern China's Sichuan province for what is slated to be a one-year expedition to explore and map the moon.
"The operation is normal," voices in the control room repeatedly said on the television broadcast in the minutes shortly after the launch.
After the rocket carrying the satellite moved above the clouds and out of television camera range, the broadcast showed computer simulation images of it heading east over Taiwan.
The expedition, costing 1.4 billion yuan (184 million dollars), kicked off a programme that aims to land an unmanned rover on the moon's surface by 2012 and put a man on the moon by about 2020.
It came after Japan last month launched its first lunar probe and ahead of a similar mission planned by India for next year.
China has hailed the lunar orbiter as the third major milestone event for the nation's space programme, after developing rockets and satellites since the 1970s and sending men into orbit in 2003 and 2005.
The first crucial stage during the satellite's 380,000-kilometre (235,600-mile) journey to the moon will be leaving Earth's orbit on October 31.
It is then slated to enter a lunar orbit on November 5 and transmit first images of the moon to Earth in late November.
http://www.spacedaily.com/2006/071024102930.gu38h0n1.html
China to Launch Space Probe, Aims for Astronaut on Moon by 2020
By Lee Spears
Oct. 24 (Bloomberg) -- China will launch its first lunar probe today, marking the start of a three-phase space program to land an astronaut on the moon by 2020.
The probe, named Chang'e I, is scheduled to blast off from the Xichang satellite launch center in southern China at 6 p.m. local time, carried by the three-stage Long March 3A rocket, according to state-run Xinhua News Agency.
China's lunar launch, coinciding with the NASA shuttle Discovery's blastoff for a two-week mission, underscores China's technology ambitions including the push to build its own aircraft carrier. The third country after the U.S. and Russia to send an astronaut into space, China wants to offer commercial satellite launches, competing with Europe, Japan, Russia and the U.S.
``If they can have a successful expedition to the moon, then they can attract contracts from Europe or other areas for other satellite launches,'' Yang Tai-suenn, a professor of politics at Chinese Culture University in Taipei, said in a phone interview yesterday. ``They can prove they have the technology.''
Chang'e is named after a Chinese deity that, according to myth, lives on the moon with her pet rabbit. After the lunar probe, China plans to land a rover on the moon by 2012, aiming to retrieve soil and rock samples, Xinhua said yesterday, citing the China National Space Administration. The space agency aims to land an astronaut by 2020, Xinhua said.
China's government will shorten the research cycle for aerospace and set up industries to develop space technology, according to an Oct. 18 blueprint. The government also wants to help local aerospace companies compete with Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp., the administration said last year.
Mao's Edict
China's space program began from a 1958 edict by Mao Zedong to build a satellite to compete with American and Soviet advances in space. The Long March 3A rockets, named after the People's Liberation Army maneuver that saved Mao's guerilla force, has completed 14 consecutive launches, Xinhua said.
The country in 2003 became the third after the U.S. and Russia to send a person into space aboard its own rocket. In 2005, China's second manned space flight carried two astronauts into orbit. Attempted Long March launches in 1995 and 1996 failed as the rockets veered off course, exploding and killing an unknown number of people on the ground.
Seeking Funding
China said last October it plans to relax restrictions and allow private companies inside and outside China invest in the state-controlled space industry.
Attracting non-governmental funds would help China boost its space budget, which is less than 10 percent of NASA's, the Chinese space administration head Sun Laiyuan said in October 2006, without revealing the amount.
NASA's fiscal 2007 budget is $16.8 billion, according to a document on the agency's Web site. In 2006, the European Space Agency's budget was 2.9 billion euros ($4.1 billion), according to its Web site.
Japan's Kaguya lunar explorer, the nation's first, entered the moon's orbit on Oct. 4. It's of the largest space missions since NASA's Apollo program in the 1970s.
``We hope they succeed,'' the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's spokesman Tatsuo Oshima said in an interview yesterday. ``International cooperation is very important for technological development. We should encourage each other so we can both succeed.''
The U.S., which landed astronauts on the moon in 1969, has yet to repeat the feat. NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said last month that China will have a successful moon landing before the U.S. can make a return visit, the Associated Press reported on Oct. 3. NASA has a 2020 deadline for its next manned moon landing, according to its Web site.
The launch of the Chinese lunar orbiter is possible until Oct. 26, state-owned China Daily newspaper reported yesterday, citing Cen Zheng, chief commander of the carrier-rocket system. If the launch is delayed by weather, the next opportunity would be in April 2008, the newspaper said.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=a.j7.jRo23LA&refer=asia
BEIJING, Oct 24 (AFP) Oct 24, 2007
China on Wednesday launched its first lunar orbiter in an event broadcast on national television, with the mission a key step in the nation's plans to put a man on the moon by 2020.
Chang'e I took off around 6:05 pm (1005 GMT) from a launch centre in southwestern China's Sichuan province for what is slated to be a one-year expedition to explore and map the moon.
"The operation is normal," voices in the control room repeatedly said on the television broadcast in the minutes shortly after the launch.
After the rocket carrying the satellite moved above the clouds and out of television camera range, the broadcast showed computer simulation images of it heading east over Taiwan.
The expedition, costing 1.4 billion yuan (184 million dollars), kicked off a programme that aims to land an unmanned rover on the moon's surface by 2012 and put a man on the moon by about 2020.
It came after Japan last month launched its first lunar probe and ahead of a similar mission planned by India for next year.
China has hailed the lunar orbiter as the third major milestone event for the nation's space programme, after developing rockets and satellites since the 1970s and sending men into orbit in 2003 and 2005.
The first crucial stage during the satellite's 380,000-kilometre (235,600-mile) journey to the moon will be leaving Earth's orbit on October 31.
It is then slated to enter a lunar orbit on November 5 and transmit first images of the moon to Earth in late November.
http://www.spacedaily.com/2006/071024102930.gu38h0n1.html
China to Launch Space Probe, Aims for Astronaut on Moon by 2020
By Lee Spears
Oct. 24 (Bloomberg) -- China will launch its first lunar probe today, marking the start of a three-phase space program to land an astronaut on the moon by 2020.
The probe, named Chang'e I, is scheduled to blast off from the Xichang satellite launch center in southern China at 6 p.m. local time, carried by the three-stage Long March 3A rocket, according to state-run Xinhua News Agency.
China's lunar launch, coinciding with the NASA shuttle Discovery's blastoff for a two-week mission, underscores China's technology ambitions including the push to build its own aircraft carrier. The third country after the U.S. and Russia to send an astronaut into space, China wants to offer commercial satellite launches, competing with Europe, Japan, Russia and the U.S.
``If they can have a successful expedition to the moon, then they can attract contracts from Europe or other areas for other satellite launches,'' Yang Tai-suenn, a professor of politics at Chinese Culture University in Taipei, said in a phone interview yesterday. ``They can prove they have the technology.''
Chang'e is named after a Chinese deity that, according to myth, lives on the moon with her pet rabbit. After the lunar probe, China plans to land a rover on the moon by 2012, aiming to retrieve soil and rock samples, Xinhua said yesterday, citing the China National Space Administration. The space agency aims to land an astronaut by 2020, Xinhua said.
China's government will shorten the research cycle for aerospace and set up industries to develop space technology, according to an Oct. 18 blueprint. The government also wants to help local aerospace companies compete with Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp., the administration said last year.
Mao's Edict
China's space program began from a 1958 edict by Mao Zedong to build a satellite to compete with American and Soviet advances in space. The Long March 3A rockets, named after the People's Liberation Army maneuver that saved Mao's guerilla force, has completed 14 consecutive launches, Xinhua said.
The country in 2003 became the third after the U.S. and Russia to send a person into space aboard its own rocket. In 2005, China's second manned space flight carried two astronauts into orbit. Attempted Long March launches in 1995 and 1996 failed as the rockets veered off course, exploding and killing an unknown number of people on the ground.
Seeking Funding
China said last October it plans to relax restrictions and allow private companies inside and outside China invest in the state-controlled space industry.
Attracting non-governmental funds would help China boost its space budget, which is less than 10 percent of NASA's, the Chinese space administration head Sun Laiyuan said in October 2006, without revealing the amount.
NASA's fiscal 2007 budget is $16.8 billion, according to a document on the agency's Web site. In 2006, the European Space Agency's budget was 2.9 billion euros ($4.1 billion), according to its Web site.
Japan's Kaguya lunar explorer, the nation's first, entered the moon's orbit on Oct. 4. It's of the largest space missions since NASA's Apollo program in the 1970s.
``We hope they succeed,'' the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's spokesman Tatsuo Oshima said in an interview yesterday. ``International cooperation is very important for technological development. We should encourage each other so we can both succeed.''
The U.S., which landed astronauts on the moon in 1969, has yet to repeat the feat. NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said last month that China will have a successful moon landing before the U.S. can make a return visit, the Associated Press reported on Oct. 3. NASA has a 2020 deadline for its next manned moon landing, according to its Web site.
The launch of the Chinese lunar orbiter is possible until Oct. 26, state-owned China Daily newspaper reported yesterday, citing Cen Zheng, chief commander of the carrier-rocket system. If the launch is delayed by weather, the next opportunity would be in April 2008, the newspaper said.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=a.j7.jRo23LA&refer=asia