China plans its first moon mission

More than 40 years after the United States put the first men on the moon, China is planning to put its own astronauts there soon, a tech site reported over the weekend.

 

Tech site CNET cited a white paper outlining China’s plans to continue its bold space plans that also include deep-space exploration of planets and asteroids.

 

“China will conduct studies on the preliminary plan for a human lunar landing,” CNET quoted the State Council white paper as saying.

 

For now, China is building its own prototype space station, the Tiangong 1, before construction of a Mir-class station.

 

It has already mapped the moon with the Chang’e-1 lunar probe, and plans to send the Shenzhou-9 and Shenzhou-10 spacecraft to dock with Tiangong-1 in 2012, CNET said.

 

“Since 2006, Long March rockets have accomplished 67 successful launches, sending 79 spacecraft into planned orbits and demonstrating noteworthy improvement in the reliability of China’s launch vehicles,” CNET quoted the white paper as saying.

 

The China space plans come amid a pause in the US’ manned spaceflight program as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s space shuttle fleet had been retired and International Space Station missions dependent on Russian rockets.

 

CNET also noted that while President George Bush called for a return to the moon by 2020, President Barack Obama II canceled the program due to high costs but has proposed sending Americans to an asteroid by 2025.

 

On the other hand, CNET said the paper insisted the space program is entirely peaceful.

 

“China always adheres to the use of outer space for peaceful purposes, and opposes weaponization or any arms race in outer space,” it quoted the paper as saying. — TJD, GMA News