China said its lunar probe had entered its final orbit around the moon Wednesday, but an official backed away from reports of launching a space station by 2020.The probe — called Chang'e 1 after a mythical Chinese goddess who flew to the moon — made final adjustments at the end of a two-week journey and entered its final working orbit of 125 miles from the moon Wednesday where it will explore its surface for the next year.
The first photo of the moon should be sent back later this month, officials said. By early next year the probe will have measured the whole surface of the moon at least once, officials said.
China attaches great prestige to its ambitious space program, seeing it as a way to validate its claims to being one of the world's leading scientific nations. The country has sent astronauts into space twice in the past four years and launched its moon probe about a month after rival Japan. In 2003, China became only the third country in the world after the United States and Russia to send a human into orbit.
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