14 DAY TRIAL // Chang'e 1 has entered its final orbit around the moon on Wednesday and everyone's attention was drawn onto the future of China's space program, but surprisingly a Chinese official backed away the reports of plans of its space program to build its own space station by the year 2020.
Chang'e 1 was named after a mythical Chinese goddess who flew to the moon. Its main purpose is to orbit around the Moon and gather data for the already planned missions named Chang'e 2 and Chang'e 3. Chang'e 2 will have the mission to land on the lunar surface and Chang'e 3 to gather and retrieve samples of the lunar soil for study, to use the information for a manned vehicle.
The final adjustments to stabilize the orbit, at a distance of 200 kilometers from its surface were made on Wednesday. The first photo of the surface of the moon is expected at the end of this month. Chang'e 1 has a one year mission; during this time the probe will have the chance of scanning the whole surface of the moon at least once.
Curiously after the announcement of the stabilization of the orbit of Chang'e 1, reporters asking about China's planned space station were shocked to discover that the officials denied that there was such a plan.
"So far, according to the plans already published, there are no plans for a space station," Li Guoping, spokesperson of the China National Space Administration said at a news conference.
Chinese officials said they previously wanted to build a space station by the year 2020. The prototype for such a space station is told to have the weight of 10 percent that of the International Space Station, but it is uncertain how much people it would be able to hold.
China is the third nation in the world to have ever put a man in Earth's orbit, after Russia and the United States and take rather seriously its space program ambitions. In the last four years it has sent astronauts twice in space and it seems that a local rivalry between the nations surrounding China has spawned, Japan being the main competitor and India following close by.
China says there is no need for competition, but rather collaboration; Beijing wanted to work with other countries at the space program and is willing to participate in the International Space Program as well, but it was mainly not possible due to US' unease to collaborate with the communist government.