China to go to moon, Mars, Venus and beyond
September 20th, 2010 - 12:38 pm ICT by IANSBeijing, Sep 20 (IANS) China has now set its sight on planet Venus, where it hopes to land a space probe by 2015. A probe to Mars and the country’s first moon landing have also been chalked out.
The first unmanned space laboratory, Tiangong-1, will be launched in 2011, after which there would be the first unmanned docking with the Shenzhou-8 spacecraft, Yang Liwei, China’s first astronaut to visit space in 2003, was quoted as saying by the People’s Daily.
Manned spacecraft Shenzhou-9 and unmanned Shenzhou-10 will be launched in 2012, and by 2020, China will launch its first orbital space station, he said.
Ye Peijian, commander-in-chief of the lunar-probe programme, said an orbit of the moon can be expected by 2020. China may launch its first manned moon landing in 2025, a probe to Mars by 2013 and to Venus by 2015.
Earlier, Wu Weiren, chief engineer of the lunar exploration programme, said work on the lunar orbiter had entered the pre-launch testing stage and it would make its first trial flight before the end of the year.
The lunar programme is named “Chang’e” after a Chinese goddess who took a magic elixir and flew to the moon.
Analysts, however, dismissed international concerns that China is engaging in a space arms race, stressing that the missions are for scientific purposes and for the benefit of mankind.
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Tags: astronaut, chief engineer, chinese goddess, first moon landing, international concerns, launch, lunar exploration, lunar orbiter, lunar probe, magic elixir, manned spacecraft, mars venus, orbital space, planet venus, space laboratory, space probe, space station, trial flight, unmanned space, yang liwei