A lunar orbiter would be launched by rocket and reach the Moon in eight or nine days, the paper said. It would circle the Moon for a year, gathering information about the lunar geology, soil, environment and natural resources, it added. The BBC's correspondent in Beijing, Louisa Lim, says these comments are a sign that Chinese ambitions in space go far beyond a manned space flight. ***
The finalists to be the first Chinese astronauts converged upon a hotel in a northwestern town as the mission neared, another news report said. And in Indonesia, Premier Wen Jiabao said the craft, the Shenzhou 5, would take off with a human crew "soon, very soon."
………….. Chinese astronauts have been training for years, though the military-linked program has never identified the trainees. Beijing has nurtured the dream of manned space flight since at least the early 1970s, when its first program was scrapped during the upheaval of the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution. The current effort began in 1992 under the code name Project 921.
Four unmanned Shenzhou capsules have been launched, orbiting the Earth for up to a week and landing by parachute in the northern grasslands of China's Inner Mongolia region. Wen, asked about the launch at a regional meeting in Bali, Indonesia, said it was around the corner. "This will be very soon, very soon," Wen said. Asked about a specific date, he demurred: "We haven't decided."***