CRI听力：Lunar Probe Important for China's Peaceful Use of Outer Space

China's Chang'e-1 lunar probe has successfully completed its fourth orbit transfer and began to fly to the moon. This is the first lunar probe with a launching design invented solely by China. It also marks a great step in China's peaceful move toward space exploration.

CRI's reporter Li Gang has the details:

With its fourth successful orbit transfer, the Chang' e-1 lunar probe is beginning to fly at the transfer point of the orbit of the earth and the moon. From this point on, the probe will be ready to fly to the moon in a real sense. At a press conference held on Wednesday in Beijing, Pei Zhaoyu, a spokesman for China's National Space Administration, said that after flying in the current orbit for five days, the lunar probe will begin its journey to the moon's orbit on November 5.

"Currently, the status of the lunar probe's systems is normal and its flying orbit is correct. In the following days, after one or two orbit corrections, the lunar probe is expected to enter the moon's orbit on November 5."

The launch of the lunar probe marks the first step in China's three-stage moon mission, which will include a moon landing and the launch of a moon rover around 2012. In the third phase, another rover will land on the moon and return to earth around 2017 with lunar soil and stone samples for scientific research.

The project was approved in early 2004 and has cost some 1.4 billion yuan, or 187 million U.S. dollars. Sun Zezhou, the vice chief engineer of the lunar project's satellite system, says the design process of the probe has been undertaken solely by Chinese scientists.

"The whole process of designing the Chang' e-1 has been done fully by Chinese scientists. In the designing, a lot of scientific institutions from across the country contributed their efforts."

When talking about the significance of the launch, the spokesman said exploration of the moon will provide a very important opportunity for humanity to learn about the universe, while China will always maintain a peaceful use of space technology.

"China will always stick to the principle of peaceful utilization of outer space. Our aerial activities include exploration of the moon and deeper space. The objective is for the common benefit of all human beings, therefore our space projects and objectives will not have any military components involved."

The Chang'e-1 probe was named after a mythical Chinese goddess who flew to the moon. It blasted off on October 24th from southwestern China's Sichuan Province.

Li Gang, CRI news.