BEIJING (AP) – China will launch its first lunar probe
later this month, state-run newspapers reported Tuesday, just weeks after
regional rival Japan successfully sent a lunar satellite
into orbit.
The Beijing Evening News said
the Chang'e
1 orbiter would be launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center on Oct. 24 at 6 p.m.
The Shanghai Morning Post
reported the launch would take place from Oct. 22 to Oct. 25.
The launch comes after Japan's space agency said nearly two
weeks ago that its 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.
"Preparations for the moon-orbiting project have gone well and the launch
will be made at the end of October,'' Zhang Qingwei, director of State
Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense, was quoted
as saying Tuesday by the official Xinhua News Agency.
The Chang'e 1 orbiter will
use stereo cameras and X-ray spectrometers to map three-dimensional images of
the lunar surface and study its dust, Xinhua has reported previously.
Zhang said the satellite is
now at the launching field, and the test work has been completed.
China sent shock waves through the region
in 2003, when it became the first Asian country to put its own astronauts into
space. This year, China also blasted an
old satellite into oblivion with a land-based anti-satellite missile, the
first such test ever conducted by any nation, including the United States and Russia.
The regional space rivalry
is likely to be joined soon by India, which
plans to launch a lunar probe in April.
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