China will strive to launch a satellite to orbit the moon by December of 2006 from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan Province, southwest China, the country's top space official said Thursday.

The tentative plan for the launch is one year earlier than was announced late last year. Sun Laiyan, vice-director of the China National Space Administration (CNSA), said last December the satellite will be launched by 2007.

Luan Enjie, CNSA director and chief commander of the lunar satellite project, said Thursday research and development of five major systems of the project are under way. They are the satellite system, the launch vehicle system, the launch site system, the survey and control system and the ground application system.

The project has government funding of 1.4 billion yuan (about US$70 million).

Addressing the first work meeting on the project, Luan said the project has been named Chang'e Project, while the first lunar satellite has been named Chang'e No.1. Chang'e refers to a goddess who flew to the moon in an ancient Chinese fairy tale.

According to the design, the satellite system consists of a satellite platform and payload, which will be based on China's Dongfanghong 3 satellite platform and payload and other mature satellite technology. The satellite will be 2,350 kg in weight with 130 kg of payload, and will orbit the moon for one year.

A home-made Long March III A carrier rocket will be used to launch the satellite.

The satellite would obtain three-dimensional images of the lunar surface, analyze the content of useful elements and materials, and probe the depth of the lunar soil and the space environment between the earth and the moon.

China's lunar probe program is divided into three phases. The first phase of the program for sending a satellite to orbit the moon is underway. It would be followed by a proposed landing of an unmanned vehicle on the moon in the second stage by 2010, and collecting samples of lunar soil with an unmanned vehicle by 2020 in the third phase.

(Xinhua News Agency March 26, 2004)