China chooses landing spot for lunar mission

China has chosen a landing spot for its third lunar exploration mission, which will be launched next year, the China 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.

China 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.

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