China Announces it Will Land a Probe on the Moon This Year

China confirmed Wednesday its intentions to land an unmanned spacecraft on the Moon by the end of this year. Successful completion of the mission would mark the first time China has soft landed a spacecraft on a celestial body.

The Chang'e-3 lunar probe "officially entered its launch stage, following its research and manufacture period," China's state-run Xinhua news agency said Wednesday.

Landing a vessel on the Moon would mark the second stage of China's Lunar Exploration Program. Objectives for phase two include a soft lunar landing and analysis of lunar matter.

"The Chang'e-3 mission makes best use of a plethora of innovative technology. It is an extremely difficult mission, that carries great risk," Ma Xingrui, head of China's space exploration body and chief commander of the lunar program, told Xinhua.

The Chang'e-3 carrier rocket has been successfully tested and control and ground application systems are ready for the mission, Xinhua reported.

China began its lunar exploration endeavor in 2007 with the launch of its first Moon orbiter Chang'e-1, which photographed the lunar surface and collected data about the distribution of elements. The Chang'e-1 probe was crash-landed onto the lunar surface in 2009 upon completion of it's 16-month mission.

Chang'e-2, which is now in orbit along the L2 Lagrangian Point between the Sun and Earth, was launched in 2010 to conduct lunar surface research for the Chang'e-3 planned Moon landing. Upon completion of its primary mission, the Chang'e-2 was sent out of lunar orbit.

The third stage of China's lunar exploration program is expected to be the retrieval of stone and soil samples from the Moon's surface, which is anticipated to happen in 2017, according to Reuters.