China to Launch Lunar Probe This Week

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BEIJING (AP) -- China will launch its first lunar probe this week, an official said Monday -- weeks after regional rival Japan put one in high orbit over the moon in a big leap forward in Asia's undeclared space race.

The rivalry is likely to be joined soon by India, which plans to send its own lunar probe into space in April.

The launch window for China's Chang'e 1 orbiter has been set for Wednesday through Friday, with the prime time being 6 p.m. (6 a.m. EDT) Wednesday, said Li Guoping, a spokesman for the China National Space Administration.

''The orbiting of the moon is a high-tech project of self-innovation,'' Li told reporters. ''It will set the technological foundation for the development of China's space exploration.''

The Chang'e 1 -- named after a legendary Chinese goddess who flew to the moon -- would be launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan province in southwestern China, Li said.

Pre-launch inspections have been completed and ''they fully fulfill the technical requirements,'' he said, reading from a statement. He did not take questions.

The Chang'e will orbit the Earth while technical adjustments are made, and by Nov. 5, it will enter the moon's orbit, Li said.

The goal is to analyze the chemical and mineral composition of the lunar surface, he said, adding that it will use stereo cameras and X-ray spectrometers to map three-dimensional images of the surface and study the moon's dust.

It will transmit its first photo back to China in the second half of November. ''Then it will work for one year of scientific exploration,'' Li said.

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 mission has a very strong scientific emphasis,'' said Sun Kwok, professor of physics and dean of science at the University of Hong Kong. ''It's not just about technology. It's more than just launching a satellite, it's more than putting the first satellite in orbit.''

''It's very good for China being a major power,'' said Kwok, who is on an advisory panel of Chinese scientists who have been invited to help with data analysis on the Chang'e's findings. ''It shows that China is moving more and more into the international space community.''

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Update:

China Says Lunar Probe in Final Orbit

BEIJING (AP) -- China said its lunar probe had entered its final orbit around the moon Wednesday, but an official backed away from reports of launching a space station by 2020.

The probe -- called Chang'e 1 after a mythical Chinese goddess who flew to the moon -- made final adjustments at the end of a two-week journey and entered its final working orbit of 125 miles from the moon Wednesday where it will explore its surface for the next year.

The first photo of the moon should be sent back later this month, officials said. By early next year the probe will have measured the whole surface of the moon at least once, officials said.

China attaches great prestige to its ambitious space program, seeing it as a way to validate its claims to being one of the world's leading scientific nations. The country has sent astronauts into space twice in the past four years and launched its moon probe about a month after rival Japan. In 2003, China became only the third country in the world after the United States and Russia to send a human into orbit.

But officials denied state media reports Wednesday that China was planning a space station by 2020.

''So far, according to the plans already published, there are no plans for a space station,'' Li Guoping, spokesman of the China National Space Administration, said at a news conference.

The China Daily newspaper, said China's planned space station would be ''a small-scale, 20-ton space workshop,'' quoting Long Lehao, a leading designer of the Long March 3A rocket that carried the Chang'e 1 into space.

Chinese space officials have said previously they wanted to build a space station in the next 10 or 15 years, but the target date of 2020 was the first time a schedule has been made public, Long told China Daily.

The report did not say how many people the station would be able to hold. But its weight is about one-tenth that of the International Space Station, which currently has six people on board.

The probe's launch raised the prospect of a space rivalry between China and Japan, with India possibly joining in if it carries through on a plan to send its own lunar probe into space in April.

But Chinese officials have played down talk of a space race, saying Beijing wanted to use its program to work with other countries.

Li said China was willing to participate in the International Space station, joining the 16 countries involved.

China has not participated in the project in part because of U.S. unease about allowing a communist dictatorship a place aboard.

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