15 December 2013

Chinese President, Premier Arrive in Aerospace Control Center

This is what top-level leadership support for national space development looks like!

Hou Qiang, “Chinese President, Premier Arrive in Aerospace Control Center,” Xinhua, 15 December 2013.

BEIJING, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) — Chinese president Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang arrived in Beijing Aerospace Control Center (BACC) on Sunday night.

The moon lander and moon rover “Yutu”, or Jade Rabbit, will take pictures of each other after Chang’e-3 lunar probe soft-landed on moon Saturday night.

Related:

China’s moon rover, lander to photograph each other

BEIJING, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) – China’s first moon rover, Yutu, or Jade Rabbit, and the lander are scheduled to take photos of each other Sunday night, a move that will mark the complete success of the country’s Chang’e-3 lunar probe mission.

Yutu separated from the lander early on Sunday, several hours after the Chang’e-3 probe soft-landed on the lunar surface at 9:11 p.m. on Saturday.  Full story

Backgrounder: China’s “triple jump” progress in lunar probes

Backgrounder: Timeline of China’s lunar program

Special Report: Chinas lunar explorations

Graphics: Launch procedure of Chang’e-3 lunar probe

Commentary: Chang’e-3’s soft landing marks Chinas hard success

BEIJING, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) — The moon Saturday saw a rare new visitor — lunar probe Chang’e-3 from China, the third country on earth which achieved a soft landing on it after the United States and the former Soviet Union.

The success also made China the first country that conducted a soft landing on Sinus Iridum, or the Bay of Rainbows, a lunar area that remains unstudied and silent for hundreds of millions of years, stamping new foot prints in the history of mankind’s lunar exploration. Full story

China’s Chang’e-3 lunar probe amazes world

BEIJING, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) – China’s Chang’e-3, which includes its first lunar rover named Yutu, or Jade Rabbit, has successfully soft landed on the Moon Saturday, fulfilling the long-awaited dream of moon landing of the Chinese nation.

Since the successful launching of Chang’e-3 mission early December, the Chang’e-3 lunar exploration program has been put in the spotlight. Now as Jade Rabbit has made its touchdown on the moon surface, the whole world again marvels at China’s remarkable space capabilities and even extends their aspiration for space cooperation with China. Full story

Lunar mission: craft to conduct re-entry tests before 2015

BEIJING, March 14 (Xinhuanet) — An experimental spacecraft will be launched before 2015 to conduct crucial re-entry tests on the capsule to be used in the Chang’e-5 lunar-sample mission, a leading space program official said.

Chang’e-5 is expected to be China’s first lunar explorer to return to Earth. The mission will be carried out before 2020. Full story

Chinese probe reaches record height in space travel

BEIJING, July 14 (Xinhua) – China’s space probe Chang’e-2 has flew to an outer space about 50 million km from the Earth, marking a new height in the nation’s deep space exploration, Chinese scientists said on Sunday.

The probe, which is now “in good conditions”, reached the height at around 1 a.m. Sunday Beijing Time, the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence (SASTIND) said in a statement. Full story

Lunar probe, space exploration is China’s duty to mankind

BEIJING, Oct. 6 (Xinhua) — A chief designer with China’s second lunar probe project has said that the country’s lunar pursuit, while lagging behind Russia and the United States for more than 40 years, is still important because space exploration is part of the country’s responsibility towards mankind.

“The most fundamental task for human beings’ space exploration is to research on human origins and find a way for mankind to live and develop sustainably,” said Qian Weiping, chief designer of the Chang’e-2 mission’s tracking and control system. Full story

China calls for int’l cooperation in manned space program

BEIJING, June 26 (Xinhua) — A Chinese astronaut research and training official Wednesday called for international cooperation to promote the development of manned space technologies.

China has long been pushing for international cooperation in manned space program under the principles of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit, as well as of transparency and opening, said Deng Yibing, director of China Astronaut Research and Training Center. Full story