a chinese rocket is on its way to the
moon with a mission to bring back rock
samples
back down to earth it's the first
attempt by any nation to retrieve
lunar samples since the 1970s china has
poured billions into its space
program and the probe's mission is a
chance to show global competitors
just how advanced it's become
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this launch is a milestone for china a
spacecraft that symbolizes
the country's technological prowess and
its military might
the unmanned rocket blasted off early on
tuesday morning local time from hainan
island in the south
destination the moon
the aerospace control center reports
that the long march 5 rocket lifted off
normally
and the changa 5 spacecraft has entered
orbit as planned
i can now announce that the launch
mission of long march 5
has been completed successfully
the changa 5 rocket is made up of
several components
one is the lander which will dig for
rocks and soil
these materials will then be transferred
into the return capsule for the journey
back to earth
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our current lunar program consists of
three phases orbiting
landing and returning the changa 5 will
carry out the third phase
bringing moon samples back to earth we
hope this will be a success
if successful it would be the first time
in four decades that material has been
brought back from the moon
china's space ambitions are no secret
and have been growing for years
in 2003 it secured a major breakthrough
when it became the third country in the
world to send a human into space
ten years later china hit another
milestone
successfully landing an unpiloted
spacecraft on the moon
it was the first soft landing since the
soviet union's success in 1976
more chinese cheers in january 2019
in a global first a lunar probe touching
down on the far side of the moon
boosting china's space ambitions
mars is also in its sights this year
beijing launched an unmanned probe to
the planet
in july it put the final satellite into
orbit for its chinese navigation system
the country's rival to us-owned gps
but this lunar mission to bring back
material from the moon is one of china's
most ambitious to date
and one that beijing is determined will
be another success
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joining me now is blevin bowen he's an
expert for space warfare space
policy and international relations in
outer space at the university of
leicester
dr bowen thanks for joining dw what's
the scientific importance of this
mission
rocks have been brought back from the
moon before
good morning um the scientific
importance is that they could always do
with more materials to analyze
and they are going to be from um yes
more different
areas as well so as far as my limited
understanding of the science goes
um those are sort of the major elements
because the amount of material brought
back in the past have been very limited
so any more material is always a good
thing for more scientific
tests to be done right so china has
ambitious plans for space including the
building of its own space station
is it pure science that is driving these
plans
so um when we talk about china's space
program
it's important to think of the
exploration
uh whether robotic or crude is maybe one
program among many space programs in
china
so um i would separate the scientific
and civil
and exploration space program from the
economic
commercial military and intelligence
space programs as well
so at the moment now china has launched
or has registered within this state
around 350 plus satellites and they
provide
all sorts of essential services um down
on earth for military and economic and
infrastructural purposes
the um space science and exploration
that's very much about stimulating
high-tech industry
also as a partly for techno nationalist
purposes as well which is not unique to
china
um and sort of the propaganda and
prestige rationales behind it as well of
demonstrating
china's high-tech space capability so
any large space program has a lot
of motivations behind it but it is
important i think to separate the space
station
uh which is fairly benign compared to
the more military elements of
china's and other parts of its space
program
okay well our china's space plans
creating
sort of a competition with other
programs such as the american and
european
um i would downplay sort of an
intentional
competition because um china's becoming
a comprehensive space power
it's it's doing so on the back of its
wider modernization of its economy
and military and infrastructure and
space is part of modern
economic and military development so
that is sort of
it's entirely normal behavior really
that china is investing in these massive
spread of space capabilities
and actually that does raise some
concerns but in many ways china is
catching up
to where the united states has allowed
over 30 40 years ago in terms of
space infrastructure and i would i would
not sort of reduce china's actions based
on what other people are doing in space
as well
china developing its space systems of
all kinds according to its own
timetables
and is not rushing about it either it's
taking its time to do it right
okay blevin bowen an expert for space
warfare from the university of leicester
thanks very much
thank you
you