How it took decades for space program to take off

Back in 1970, the year China launched its first satellite, some scientists suggested that the government should start a lunar exploration program. However, their suggestion was turned down by then Premier Zhou Enlai due to technological and financial difficulties. In 1997, several top Chinese scientists launched an initiative calling for the central government to pay greater attention to lunar exploration. After that, the country’s science community kept urging space authorities to undertake lunar programs. In November 2000, the government announced in a white paper that preparatory research on lunar exploration had been included in its space planning program. In February 2003, the government said it was ready to open a lunar program and appointed three scientists to head the project team. In January 2004, the first phase of the Chang’e program was officially approved, marking the formal opening of China’s lunar exploration mission. After nearly four years of preparations, the first lunar probe, Chang’e 1, was launched on Oct 24, 2007, from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan province. It was tasked with testing and verifying China’s lunar probe technologies, obtaining images of the moon and performing scientific surveys. It obtained a lot of scientific data and generated images… Read full this story

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