China is about to launch a ship to the moon

China's second spacecraft will fly to the moon's orbit later this year.

Hang Nga 1 flies to the moon. (Photo: Xinhua).

Hang Nga 1, China's first moon explorer spacecraft, flew into space on October 24, 2007 from Sichuan Province. The ship ended its mission on March 1, 2009 when it plunged into the moon.

Xinhua quoted Chinese scientists as saying that the Hang Nga 2 spacecraft will be launched later this year. Hang Nga 2 has a higher cruising speed than Hang Nga 1 so it will reach the moon's orbit faster. If Hang Nga 1 took more than 13 and a half days to reach the moon's orbit, Hang Nga 2 went there for 5 days.

' China has not taken ships to space since the launch of Hang Nga 1. So we are very careful about this launch. Hang Nga 2 will pass the 2.06 million km route to reach the moon's orbit. In addition Hang Nga 2 will fly about 100 km closer to the moon than Hang Nga 1 and bring a larger resolution camera , "said Ouyang Ziyuan, head of China's Moon Exploration Project.

According to China's lunar exploration route, the country's Hang Nga 3 unmanned spacecraft will land on the moon in 2013. The ship will then bring the moon pattern to the earth in 2017.

Hang Nga 2 will test the soft ground landing techniques on the moon and provide images of landing areas to prepare for Hang Nga's flight 3.