China's first lunar probe ends mission

Mar 1, 2009, 10:04 GMT

Beijing - China's first lunar probe, the Chang'e-I, ended its 16-month mission on Sunday with a controlled crash-landing on the surface of the moon, state media quoted space officials as saying.

The satellite began to reduce speed from 3:36 pm (0736 GMT) and landed on the lunar surface some 40 minutes later, the government's Xinhua news agency quoted sources with the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence as saying.

The landing was controlled by two observation stations in China's eastern Chinese port of Qingdao and its far western city of Kashgar, the agency said.

China plans to launch a lunar lander in 2012 and a third satellite designed to reach the moon and bring back mineral samples in 2017.

It has not ruled out a manned landing on the moon, but space analysts have reported no signs that China is making active preparations for a manned moon mission.

China is running its moon exploration programme alongside manned space flights.

The Shenzhou-VII manned spacecraft returned safely to Earth after a three-day mission that included China's first ever spacewalk in September.

It is part of China's plan to build an integrated ground-space network for space exploration and manned space research, including a permanent space laboratory by 2020.

China first sent an astronaut into space in 2005, becoming the third nation to do so after the United States and Russia.