China...... Chang'e unmanned moon lander launch 'by year-end' 2013

[Cidersomerset]

28 August 2013 Last updated at 17:20

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Zn3SPTOTBOU

China Chang'e unmanned moon lander launch 'by year-end'Visitors stand on the roof of
a skyscraper as the moon rises over the skyline of Lujiazui financial district of Pudong in
Shanghai 16 August, 2013 According to Chinese legend, Chang'e is the name of a
woman who lives in a palace on the moon




China plans to send an unmanned space probe to the moon this year for the country's
first lunar landing.State media said preparations were now under way for the launch of
Chang'e-3, the latest stage in its efforts to put a person on the moon.The craft will use
a radio-controlled rover to transmit images and dig into the moon's surface to test
samples. In June, three Chinese astronauts spent 15 days in orbit and docked their craft
with an experimental space laboratory.


In this image made off the screen at the Beijing Aerospace Control Centre and released
by China's Xinhua News Agency, the Shenzhou-10 manned spacecraft is seen while
conducting docking with the orbiting Tiangong-1 space module Thursday, 13 June, 2013



The Shenzhou-10 manned spacecraft docked with the orbiting Tiangong-1 module in
June According to Chinese legend, Chang'e is the name of a woman who lives in a
palace on the moon.

"Chang'e-3 has officially entered its launch implementation stage following its research
and construction period," said a statement released by the administration after a
meeting on Wednesday about the mission, the state news agency Xinhua reported.

The Chang'e-3 and another lander will remain on the moon's surface, although China
plans to follow those with landers that will return to Earth with samples, the Associated
Press news agency reports.

Parallel programmes

China would need experts from its lunar exploration programme and its separate human
spaceflight programme to work together on a possible crewed lunar mission. Attention
has focussed recently on China putting humans in space. Two missions have been made
to work on the Tiangong-1 experimental space station. Launched in 2011, the station is
due to be replaced by a three-module permanent station, Tiangong-2, in seven years'
time. China sent its first astronaut into space in 2003, becoming the third country after
Russia and the United States to achieve manned space travel independently. The
military-backed space programme is a source of national pride.

Chinese astronaut (L-R) Zhang Xiaoguang, Nie Haisheng and Wang Yaping sit on their
chairs after getting out of the Shenzhou-10 spacecraft that landed on the grasslands of
north China's Inner Mongolia region on 26 June, 2013, after a 15-day mission in space.




Three astronauts on the Shenzhou-10 mission landed safely in Mongolia after a 15-day
mission

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-23870765