BEIJING (AP)—President Hu
Jintao congratulated China's military and scientists at a ceremony Wednesday to
celebrate the successful launch of a moon probe.
Hu devoted much of a live
nationwide television broadcast to praising the country's socialist system,
along with its military and scientific community, for ensuring the success of
the Chang'e
1 lunar satellite.
China launched the probe in
late October with plans to have it survey the entire surface of the moon over
the next year. It began
sending photos back to Earth several weeks ago.
"Our
deep-space exploration is for peaceful purposes,'' Hu told an audience of
Communist Party officials, schoolchildren and military officers gathered at
Beijing's Great Hall of the People.
"The peaceful
exploration and development of outer space is a common cause of mankind,'' Hu
said.
The launch of the Chang'e
closely followed the start of a similar mission by Japan, prompting speculation
over a new space race in Asia. India plans to launch a lunar probe in April.
In 2003, China became only
the third country in the world after the United States and Russia to send a
human into Earth's orbit, following that with a two-man
mission in 2005.
In January, China alarmed
the international community when it blasted apart an old satellite in space
using a land-based missile.
Despite that, Hu repeated
China's assertions that it hoped to join multinational space exploration,
including the international space station.
"The Chinese people
are willing to join with all other people to go along the road of peaceful
utilization of outer space and cooperate in international space exploration,''
he said.
The Chang'e 1 satellite, slung
into space by a Long March 3A rocket, will survey the moon's surface using
stereo radar and other tools as a precursor to a planned lunar landing in 2012
and a mission to gather lunar samples by 2020.
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