CHINA will next year attempt to land an exploratory craft on the moon for the first time, state media report, in the latest project in the country's ambitious space program.


If successful, the landing would be China's first on the lunar surface and mark a new milestone in its space development. It is part of a project to orbit, land on and return from the moon, Xinhua said.


Beijing sees its multi-billion-dollar space program as a symbol of its rising global stature, growing technical expertise and the Communist Party's success in turning around the fortunes of the once poverty-stricken nation.

It kicked off in 1999 with the launch of the unmanned Shenzhou-1.

Two years later, Shenzhou-2 lifted off carrying small animals and in 2003 China sent its first man into space. Since then, it has completed a space walk in 2008 and an unmanned docking between a module and rocket last year.

Most recently, a 13-day voyage of the Shenzhou-9 spacecraft became China's longest-ever space mission and was notable for including the nation's first woman astronaut among its three-member crew.

The crew also achieved China's first manual docking with an orbital module, the Tiangong-1, a highly complex manoeuvre first conducted by the Americans in the 1960s and essential to building a permanent manned space station.

Next year's planned lunar probe launch will follow the Chang'e 1 in 2007 and Chang'e 2 in 2010, both named for the Chinese goddess of the moon.

Xinhua quoted the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence as saying the project was proceeding smoothly.

Originally published as China aims to land on the moon in 2013