Timeline of China's Lunar Program
Xinhua News Agency, November 27, 2013 Adjust font size:
Chang'e-3, the spacecraft carrying China's rover to the moon, will be launched in early December.
China's lunar mission is divided into three stages: orbiting, landing, and return. Following is the timeline of China's lunar mission development.
| 1998 |
Commission for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (COSTIND) begins planning the lunar mission, tackling major scientific and technological problems. |
| 2004 |
January - lunar orbiter project is formally established; February - mission is named "Project Chang'-e" after a mythical Chinese goddess who flew to the moon. |
| 2007 |
Oct 24 - Chang'e-1 is successfully launched; Nov 7 - Chang'e-1 enters lunar orbit; Nov 26 - a clip of the voice of the probe and a Chinese song "Ode to the Motherland" are sent back from orbit. China's first picture of the lunar surface is published by Xinhua News Agency. |
| 2008 |
Jan 31 - COSTIND publishes the first picture of the lunar polar region taken by Chang'e-1; October - the State Council, China's Cabinet, approves the Chang'e-2 mission; Nov 12 - based on data collected by Chang'e-1, the first lunar hologram with a resolution of 7 meters is published. |
| 2009 |
March 1 - Chang'e-1 impacts the moon under control. |
| 2010 |
Oct 1 - Chang'e-2 is sent into space aboard a Long March-3C carrier rocket from southwest China's Xichang satellite launch center; Oct 9 - Chang'e-2 enters 100-km circular lunar orbit; Oct 26 - Chang'e-2 enters lower, elliptical orbit; prepares to photograph Sinus Iridium; Oct 29 - Chang'e-2 photographs Sinus Iridium and returns to a higher orbit; Nov 8 - pictures of Sinus Iridium published by the State Administration for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence (SASTIND). |
| 2011 |
April 1 - Chang'e-2 completes all six engineering objectives and four scientific missions. Its design lifetime expires; April to the end of May - Chang'e-2 surveys south and north poles of the moon, and takes high-resolution pictures of the chosen landing site for Chang'e-3; August 25 - For the first time in history, from lunar orbit a space craft enters the second Lagrange Point (L2) orbit, where gravity of the sun and Earth balance the orbital motion of the satellite. |
| 2012 |
Feb 6 - SASTIND publishes a lunar hologram with a resolution of 7 meters; Dec 13 - Chang'e-2 arrives in deep space 7 million km away from Earth, and surveys the Tout asteroid. |
| Present |
Chang'e-2 is 60 million km away from Earth and has become China's first man-made asteroid in the solar system. It continues flying into deeper space |
