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October 23, 2014

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China spacecraft to fly toward moon and return

CHINA will launch a spacecraft in a new lunar mission this week to test technology likely to be used in Chang’e-5, a future lunar probe with the ability to return to Earth.

The spacecraft, which has not been named, is scheduled to be launched anytime between Friday and Sunday from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center and expected to reach a location near the moon and return to earth, the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense announced yesterday.

The carrier rocket, Long March CZ-3C, started the replenishment of propellant yesterday.

When the spacecraft returning to Earth, it is expected to land in an area in the middle of north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the administration said.

It is China’s first lunar module capable of returning to Earth, which will require withstanding the high temperatures that develop when a probe re-enters the terrestrial atmosphere.

Chinese Business View newspaper claimed the spacecraft will fly to the moon for about one week before returning.

The space flight experiment is to test the technology that will be used in the 2017 launch of Chang’e-5 lunar probe, which will be tasked with unmanned sampling and returning, it said.

The country’s leading space scientist Ye Peijian said it requires technology breakthroughs in moon surface takeoff, sampling encapsulation, rendezvous and docking in lunar orbit, as well as high-speed Earth re-entry, according to Xinhua News Agency.

China’s lunar probe program covers three stages. Chang’e-1 and Chang’e-2 missions were in 2007 and 2010.

“Now, we have completed the second phase after the Chang’e-3 probe soft-landed on the Moon on December 14 last year, with the country’s first moon rover Yutu (Jade Rabbit) aboard,” Ye said. Ye also told Xinhua that the Chang’e-3 mission had helped China to better understand the lunar environment and paved the way for further explorations.

China is the third nation, after the United States and Russia, to acquire the technologies necessary for extravehicular activities and space docking, Xinhua reported.




 

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