China launches 1st lunar probe

In this photo released by China's official Xinhua news agency, China's first moon orbiter Chang'e 1 lifts off from the launch pad at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China's Sichuan province, on Wednesday October 24, 2007. (AP Photo/Xinhua, Wang Jianmin)

By AUDRA ANG, Associated Press Writer1 hour, 33 minutes ago

China launched its first lunar probe Wednesday, an initial step in an ambitious 10-year plan to send a rover to the moon and return it to Earth.

The Chang'e 1 orbiter blasted off with a trail of smoke from the Xichang Launch Center in Sichuan province in southwestern China, according to images from state television.

The launch comes just weeks after China's regional rival Japan put a probe into orbit around the moon in a great leap forward in Asia's undeclared space race. India is likely to join the regional rivalry soon, with plans to send its own lunar probe into space in April.

The Long March 3A rocket carrying the probe was launched shortly after 6 p.m. local time after officials from the China National Space Administration said weather conditions were good for a liftoff.

Several thousand people living within 1 1/2 miles of the launch center and under the rocket's trajectory were evacuated two hours beforehand, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

More than 2,000 tourists were also on hand to watch it soar into space.

The Chang'e 1, named after a legendary Chinese goddess who flew to the moon, will orbit Earth while technical adjustments are made, and will enter the moon's orbit by Nov. 5, administration spokesman Li Guoping said when the launch plans were announced Monday.

The project's goal is to analyze the chemical and mineral composition of the lunar surface. The probe will use stereo cameras and X-ray spectrometers to map three-dimensional images of the surface.

The 5,070-pound Chang'e 1 is expected to transmit its first photo back to China in late November, and to conduct explorations of the moon for a year.

The launch marks the first step of a three-stage moon mission. In about 2012 there will be a moon landing with a moon rover. In the third phase about five years later, another rover will land on the moon and return to Earth with soil and rock samples, Xinhua said.

In 2003, China became only the third country in the world after the United States and Russia to put its own astronauts into space.

But China also alarmed the international community in January when it blasted an old satellite into oblivion with a land-based anti-satellite missile. It was the first such test ever conducted by any nation.

The Long March rocket had a drawing on it of a moon with an eclipse which was also designed to look like a dragon. "China Moon Probe" was written in Chinese on the rocket.

A government official said last week China hopes to join an international space station project that already counts leading space powers such as the United States and Russia as its members.

China does not participate in the international space station, due in part to American unease about allowing a communist dictatorship a place aboard.

The space station's first section was launched in 1998 and it has been inhabited continuously since 2000 by Russian, U.S. and European crew mates.

Japan's space agency said nearly two weeks ago that its lunar 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.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071024/ap_on_sc/china_lunar_probe

China launches probe in Asian race for moon

By Richard Spencer in Beijing

Probe will be the first MP3 player in space

The Chang'e 1, named after a fairy who in Chinese mythology fled an unhappy marriage to live on the moon with her pet rabbit, was blasted into space at 6.05pm from Xichang, in south-west China.

Thousands of local farmers had to be moved out of a two-mile radius of the launch-pad.

It will send its first photographs back next month and spend a year orbiting the moon, scanning its surface to detect its chemical make-up and soil thickness.

If the mission is successful, it will be the basis of a lunar programme intended to include a space rover landing in 2012, and China's first man on the moon in 2020.

By coincidence, both sides say, Japan also intends to put a man on the moon in 2020, hinting that the long and often bloody rivalry between the two powers may be finding a new theatre.

Japan's first lunar module, the Kaguya, entered the moon's orbit two three weeks ago.

Meanwhile India has announced it intends to add a lunar probe to a space launch planned for next April.

"Japan began its lunar exploration research much earlier than we did, so we have always stressed that with the launch of Chang'e, we don't want to be talking about who is first,” Zhang Jianqi, a mission official said.

But Huang Hai, of the School of Astronautics at Beihang University, said that while space technology had important practical benefits, the element of competition could not be denied.

"For different countries, exploring unknown parts of space is a race, and the US and Britain both have this technology already,” he said.

Another space scientist, Zhu Yilin, put a positive gloss on the competition between the Asian giants.

"Since all three of us are able to explore the moon, in future we should be able to co-operate, I think. Each country can complement areas where others are weaker.”

China's greatest symbolic leap forward in space exploration came in 2003, when it became the third nation to put a man into space.

Yang Liwei spent 24 hours in orbit, and has since become a national hero and a delegate to the recent five-yearly Communist Party Congress, where he announced he wanted a party cell to be established in space.

He had distinguished antecedents, however.

China sometimes claims to have begun the space race in around 1500, when Wan Hu, a Ming dynasty official, decided to fly to the moon in a chair steered by two kites and launched by 47 firework rockets.

He lit the fuse, and after the dust cleared, was never seen again, though a crater on the moon has since been named after him.

A more realistic step came in 1970 when the first Chinese satellite, named The East is Red 1, was launched.

It was also the first musical satellite, as it broadcast the revolutionary song of the same name, the official anthem of Chairman Mao's personality cult, while it orbited.

Engineers later recalled how they spent almost as much time ensuring the tape machine would work properly in zero gravity as on the satellite itself.

It might be regarded as a counter-revolutionary error if the tune was played out of key, they feared, even if there was no-one there to hear it.

In a demonstration that not all has changed in modern China, Chang'e 1 will go down as the first space MP3 player.

It has been uploaded with 32 songs, all chosen for their patriotic content, and including the Chinese national anthem.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/10/24/wchina124.xml

China is in an undeclared space race with its Asian rivals Watch Video Here: Probe takes off Probe takes off

China is in an undeclared space race with its Asian rivals

The satellite, named Chang'e 1, took off from the Xichang Centre in south-west China's Sichuan province at 1800 local time (1000 GMT).

Analysts say it is a key step towards China's aim of putting a man on the Moon by 2020, in the latest stage of an Asian space race with Japan and India

Earlier this month, a Japanese lunar probe entered orbit around the Moon.

 

 

China's space challenge to the US

 

By Paul Reynolds World Affairs correspondent, BBC News website

The announcement by China confirming that it has destroyed a satellite with a ballistic missile is a challenge to the recently formulated American policy insisting that Washington reserves its "rights, capabilities and freedom of action in space".

The Chinese hit their target, but most satellites are not so vulnerable

In 2002, China and Russia proposed a treaty banning the use of weapons in space, but the United States opposes such a treaty and the Chinese action is unlikely to weaken that primarily unilateral American approach.

Washington puts more faith in its own abilities to protect its interests than in a treaty.

US policy, authorised by President Bush on 31 August last year, included the statement: "The United States will oppose the development of new legal regimes or other restrictions that seek to prohibit or limit US access to or use of space."

China might be saying that, without a treaty, anything goes and that includes the development of satellite-destroying systems.

Its action is likely to increase the US long-term determination to protect its satellites upon which it relies heavily for imagery, communications, targeting, navigation, early warning and weather.

'Not vulnerable'

At the moment, though, most of these satellites are in high orbit. This would protect them from the kind of operation carried out by the Chinese, which was against a low orbit vehicle.

Michael O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institution in Washington wrote in the Financial Times: "Most US satellites are not vulnerable to attack today nor are they likely to be in the years ahead.

Space is not entirely a no-man's land, open to competition or cooperation as nations see fit

"Thereafter, threats may often be handled through... redundant systems [having more than one satellite doing a particular task] rather than an all-out space weapons competition."

According to the British Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (OST), the US operates over half the more than 270 military satellites in orbit.

Russia has about 85, but 45 nations in all have launched satellites for various purposes. India's and China's programmes are "developing fast" according to the OST. Over 800 satellites orbit the earth in all.

No nukes

Space is not entirely a no-man's land, open to competition or cooperation as nations see fit.

The Outer Space Treaty of 1967, ratified by the major powers, does ban nuclear weapons in space. Its Article IV says: "States Parties to the Treaty undertake not to place in orbit around the earth any objects carrying nuclear weapons or any other kinds of weapons of mass destruction, install such weapons on celestial bodies, or station such weapons in outer space in any other manner."

But significantly it does not mention other weapons. Therefore, although space has so far been free of weapons based there, that might not last.

In 2004, the US Air Force issued a document called "Transformation Flight Plan" which envisaged a whole array of space weapons both offensive and defensive. They would include anti-satellite systems and even things called "hypervelocity rod bundles" that could be hurled down on a target from space.

In the meantime, the US is developing the so-called "son of star wars" missile defence system and only this week news emerged of American contacts with Poland and the Czech Republic about building links in the system there.

Taiwan factor

However, the Chinese action can also be seen as part of its general military build-up, a process designed to put it in a position to impose its will on its highest priority issue - Taiwan.

[The action] demonstrates that China's capabilities are developing but it is not very helpful to relations with its neighbours John Swenson-Wright Chatham House

China's policy towards Taiwan is clear. A Chinese defence white paper in December 2004 stated: "We will never allow anyone to split Taiwan from China through whatever means. Should the Taiwan authorities go so far as to make a reckless attempt that constitutes a major incident of 'Taiwan independence', the Chinese people and armed forces will resolutely and thoroughly crush it at any cost."

It wants to be strong enough first to deter Taiwan from declaring independence and then strong enough to invade it if it does. However, the latter capability will take many years to achieve.

And knowing that it is possible that the US will defend Taiwan against any attack, it has to take into account US capabilities. This first exercise in undermining US reliance on satellite communications is a pointer to where it wants to go.

'Against the thaw'

The Chinese action has caused some consternation in the region as well as in Washington.

"It demonstrates that China's capabilities are developing but it is not very helpful to relations with its neighbours," according to John Swenson-Wright of leading UK think-tank Chatham House.

"It could be seen as showing a Sino-centric disregard for others, though China has pushed at the envelope before, by, for example, sending research vessels into Japanese waters.

"This military move goes against the political thaw that the Japanese Prime Minister Abe has initiated since coming to power. It will intensify the debate under way in Japan about its own military development which includes cooperation with the United States over a missile defence system."

Paul.Reynolds-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/6290525.stm

Published: 2007/01/23 15:04:52 GMT

© BBC MMVII

 

 

Asia's space race heats up as China launches first lunar orbiter

by Staff Writers
Beijing (AFP) Oct 24, 2007

 

Asia's space race heated up on Wednesday as China launched its first lunar orbiter, an event hailed by the world's most populous nation as a milestone event in its global rise.

China's year-long expedition, costing 1.4 billion yuan (184 million dollars), kicks 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.

The launch of Chang'e I, which will explore and map the moon's surface, came after Japan last month launched its first lunar probe and ahead of a similar mission planned by India for next year.

Chang'e I took off at 6:05 pm (1005 GMT) -- perfect timing for a national television audience that watched it live after repeatedly being told by the government-controlled press about the significance of the event.

President Hu Jintao issued his personal congratulations following the successful launch, according to a brief statement carried by the official Xinhua news agency less than 90 minutes after the take-off.

China has described 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.

"Flying to the moon is the nation's long cherished dream," Xinhua said.

In the lead up to the launch, one of the chief scientists in China's moon programme, Ouyang Ziyuan, also pointed to the broader message the mission would send to the Chinese people and the world.

"As lunar exploration embodies our overall national strength, it is very significant for raising our international prestige and our national unity," Ouyang told the ruling Communist Party's mouthpiece, the People's Daily.

To further drum up Chinese pride, the national anthem and 31 other patriotic songs were uploaded onto the satellite so it could broadcast the music back to China.

In recent years China's space programme has taken huge strides, in parallel with the country's spectacular economic rise.

China successfully launched astronaut Yang Liwei into orbit in 2003, making it the third country after the former Soviet Union and the United States to put a man in space.

Its third manned space flight is scheduled for late 2008 on a mission that will include three astronauts and China's first ever space walk.

However on September 14, Japan stole a march on China by launching its first lunar orbiter as a key step in putting a man on the moon by 2020.

Although the timeframes for China and Japan to eventually put someone on the moon are similar, some Chinese officials tried to play down the rivalry.

"Japan began its lunar exploration research much earlier than we did, so we have always stressed that with the launch of Chang'e, we don't want to be talking about who is first," top mission official Zhang Jianqi said in the state-run press.

Zhang said China's project engineers were more concerned over whether new technology would perform correctly during the flight, which is named after a character from Chinese mythology who ascended from Earth to live on the moon.

Chang'e I is expected to leave Earth's orbit on October 31, enter lunar orbit on November 5 and transmit its first pictures of the moon back to Earth by the end of November.

According to Rene Oosterlinck, a European Space Agency spokesman, the race to the moon, which also includes a renewed US effort, is aimed at setting up permanent lunar bases as a first step to eventual exploration of Mars.

"The Chinese satellite will mainly be taking three dimensional pictures of the moon surface to see where it will be possible to land in the future to set up a lunar base," Oosterlinck told AFP.

Source: Agence France-Presse

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Asias_space_race_heats_up_as_China_heads_for_moon_999.html

 

 

by Staff Writers
Beijing (AFP) Oct 24, 2007

China on Wednesday launched the Chang'e I, its first-ever lunar orbiter, as part of its quest to put a man on the moon by around 2020.

China on Wednesday launched the Chang'e I, its first-ever lunar orbiter, as part of its quest to put a man on the moon by around 2020.

The following are the key events in China's space programme:

-- 1956: China opens up its first institute on missile and rocket research.

-- 1970: China launches its first satellite, the "East is Red I," aboard a Long March carrier rocket.

-- 1975: China launches its first recoverable satellite, which returns to Earth after a three-day flight.

-- 1985: China announces it will offer commercial satellite launch services for international clients.

-- Early 1990s: China suffers a series of launch failures in its commercial satellite endeavours.

-- 1992: China begins its Shenzhou programme aimed at sending a man into space.

-- 1999: China launches the first flight in the Shenzhou series, an unmanned mission.

-- 2003: Yang Liwei becomes China's first man in space on the Shenzhou V mission. He returns after 21 hours and 14 trips around the Earth.

-- 2004: China launches 10 satellites in eight successful rocket launches, the most-ever in one year.

-- 2005: The Shenzhou VI carries two men into space in the nation's second manned flight. They spend five days on their 3.25-million-kilometre (two-million-mile) mission in orbit.

-- June 2007: China launches the 100th flight of its Long March series of rockets as it remains a major player in the area of global satellite launch services.

-- Oct 24, 2007: China launches the Chang'e I, the first mission in its lunar programme.

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Japan launches space mission to the moon