President Hu Jintao pledged Wednesday that China would
adhere to the principle of peaceful development and use of outer
space in concerted efforts with other nations.
At a grand ceremony in the Great Hall of the People to celebrate
the success of China's first lunar probe Chang'e-1, Hu
reiterated that peaceful use of outer space was a shared cause of
the mankind and accords with the common interests of the
mankind.
"China's deep space exploration aims solely for peaceful
purposes," he said.
China will actively participate in international space
cooperation, continue to make breakthroughs in deep space
exploration and try hard to make more, new contributions to
technical progress and to the sublime cause of the peace and
development of the mankind, Hu added.
He said the success of the first stage of China's lunar probe
program indicated the nation had joined countries with capability
of deep space exploration.
Hu noted the lunar probe was another milestone in China's space
exploration, following the successes of man-made satellites and
manned space flights.
It was also another symbolic result of China's efforts to
enhance self-innovation and build an innovative nation and a
historical stride the nation made in its way toward world's peak of
science and technology, Hu said.
The development of the nation's scientific and technological
strength must be based on economic development, Hu said.
Only when development is regarded as the primary task of the
Party in its ruling efforts, will new achievements be made in the
development process and will the gap between China and world's
advanced standards be narrowed, he added.
Enhancing capability of self-innovation is the core of China's
national development strategy and the key to improving the overall
national strength, according to Hu.
Development of the real core technologies in crucial fields that
are related to the life line of the national economy and to the
national security must rely on self innovation, Hu stressed.
Chang'e-1, named after a mythical Chinese goddess who, according
to legend, flew to the moon, blasted off on a Long March 3A carrier
rocket on Oct. 24 from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in the
southwestern province of Sichuan.
The satellite traveled nearly two million kilometers in its
15-day flight to the moon and reached its final working orbit with
a fixed altitude of 200 kilometers on Nov. 7. The China National
Space Administration released the first picture of the moon
captured by Chang'e-1 on Nov. 26, marking the full success of the
first stage of the country's lunar probe program.
Chang'e-1 was designed to stay on the orbit for one year, but
scientists estimated that precise maneuvers may have saved 200 kg
of the fuel and prolonged its lifespan.
The launch of Chang'e-1 kicks off the first step of China's
three-stage moon mission, which will lead to a moon landing and
launch of a moon rover at around 2012. In the third phase, another
rover will land on the moon and return to earth with lunar soil and
stone samples for scientific research at around 2017.
(Xinhua News Agency December 12, 2007)
