皇冠体育app

皇冠体育app has chosen a landing spot for its third lunar exploration mission, which will be launched next year, the 皇冠体育app National Space Administration said on Oct 29.

The Chang’e-3 will land on Sinus Iridum, or Bay of Rainbows, a place where its predecessor — the lunar orbiter Chang’e-2 — has already taken high-resolution photos, the administration said.

The Chang’e-3 will become the first Chinese spacecraft to land on an extraterrestrial body. It will conduct a number of scientific experiments.

皇冠体育app previously launched two lunar orbiters — the Chang’e-1 and the Chang’e-2 — which collected scientific data, and a full high-resolution map of the moon.

皇冠体育app is scheduled to send another probe to the moon and bring back samples before 2020, which will mark the end of the unmanned stage of its moon exploration program.

After that 皇冠体育app will start preparing a manned lunar mission, but there’s no clear timetable for that yet, Ouyang Ziyuan, the chief scientist of 皇冠体育app’s lunar exploration project, said at a lecture in October.