China launches first lunar probe
By AUDRA ANG, Associated Press Writer
BEIJING - Embarking on an ambitious 10-year moon
exploration program, China launched its first lunar probe
Wednesday — a leap forward in the Asian space race
that gave a boost to national pride, and the promise of
scientific and military payoffs.
Just a week ago, Japan put a probe into orbit around the
moon, and India is likely to join the rivalry soon, with plans
to send its own lunar probe into space in April.
The Long March 3A rocket left a trail of smoke
Wednesday as it soared into cloudy skies from the
Xichang Satellite Launch Center in the southwestern
province of Sichuan.
Twenty-four minutes later, the Chang'e 1 satellite —
named after a mythical Chinese goddess who flew to the
moon — separated from the carrier rocket on a trajectory
to reach lunar orbit in 13 days.
"The launch of China's first moon probe satellite is
successful!" Xu Fuxiang, a professor from the China
Institute of Space Technology, declared on state
television, which broadcast the launch live.
Though national pride is one benefit of the space
program, China is also looking for scientific and military
benefits.
Wednesday's 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 be returned
to Earth with lunar soil and stone samples.
It also puts China squarely at the forefront in Asia, said
Joan Johnson-Freese, chair of the national security
decision-making department of the Naval War College in
Rhode Island.
Earlier this month, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin
said in unusually candid remarks that he thought China will
get to the moon before the United States can meet a
2020 deadline for a return visit.
In addition, the launch shows China is able to build and
use the best technology, which has domestic, economic
and military implications, he said. "Ultimately, it's about
strategic advantage," he said. "They clearly see space as
a new area of potential competition ... this is moving in
new directions, away from sea and air, and space
launches are part of that."
However, Vincent Sabathier, director of space initiatives
at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said
China's probe poses a military concern.
"You cannot make the distinction between civil space and
military space," he said, adding that civil space involves
projects done in the open. "The more you show the
capability in civil space, the more you tell the potential
adversaries you have the same thing on the military side.
That you are mighty."
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 and study the moon's
dust.
The 5,070-pound satellite is expected to transmit its first
photo back to China in late November, and to conduct
explorations of the moon for a year.
China sent its first satellite into Earth orbit in the 1970s
but the space program only seriously took off in the
1980s, growing apace with the booming economy.
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.
Associated Press Writer Carley Petesch in New York
contributed to this report.
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