From NASA, an artist’s rendering of China’s
Chang’e 1 lunar orbiter.
China and Japan have both nicknamed their lunar missions after the moon goddesses in their respective mythologies. In China, the lady in the moon is called Chang’e; in Japan, Kaguya. With the tension befitting a rivalry between such legendary beauties, the race to the moon kicked into high gear with the September 14 launch of Japan’s first lunar probe satellite, officially known as the Selenological and Engineering Explorer (SELENE). Chinese media have provided extensive coverage of the Kaguya expedition, including field reports from Tanegashima, the remote island location of Japan’s largest space center. Feature stories have examined Kaguya’s scientific objectives and detailed how the world’s largest lunar mission since the U.S. Apollo flights had fallen four years behind schedule. The precise timing of the launch is seen, invariably, as a challenge by Japan to her Chinese rival. Two days after Kaguya blasted into space, Sun Laiyan, vice minister of China’s Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (COSTIND), announced that China’s lunar orbiter, the Chang’e-1, had been positioned at the launch site and was slated to go into space by the end of the year. Sun’s statement contained little new information. Beijing had indicated as early as 2005 that China’s first unmanned satellite to the moon was set for a launch in 2007, and Chinese media had reported this past March that the launch of Chang’e-1, originally scheduled for April, was to be postponed to the second half of this year. Also in March, Xinhua reported that the launch might take place in September. That remains to be seen, although there are indications that the launch may be imminent. China Central Television announced on September 18 that production was nearing completion on a seven-part extravaganza titled “Optimum Challenge: Rushing towards Chang’e” that is scheduled to begin airing on October 1, China’s National Day. On September 19, Jiang Mianheng, eldest son of former president Jiang Zemin and the normally low-profile vice president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, announced at a “mobilization meeting” for Chang’e-1 team members that the satellite’s VLBI orbit tracking system had entered its final phase of development. This was followed by reports that the general public, including Hong Kong residents, would soon be able to purchase tickets, through a travel agency, to view the launch of Chang’e-1 from a hillside facing the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, located in the southwestern province of Sichuan. Tickets for the event, projected to last 16 seconds, are going for $800 yuan (US$106.67) apiece. To say that the Chang’e-1 is a prestige project for Beijing is something of an understatement. During an August 16 on-line discussion with the Chinese public, COSTIND officials declared proudly that Chang’e-1 “is a scientific and engineering objective independently proposed by our scientists and engineers… and all scientific instruments are independently developed by ourselves.” The mission also boasts many “firsts,” including plans to obtain 3D images of every inch of the moon’s surface and measure the thickness of the lunar soil. During that same on-line discussion, Hao Xifan, deputy director of the Lunar Exploration Center of COSTIND, reiterated that China’s lunar program has no military purposes and does not aim to compete with any other country. A week later, however, Xinhua carried a lengthy piece on space warfare, predicting that outer space will be a major battleground in the future. The report attributes the prospect of a “war in the heavens” to the scramble for cosmic supremacy between Russia and the United States. Subsequently, on September 11, PLA Daily began a three-part series on space warfare. The editor’s introduction to the series begins:
