The “Chang'e 1 lunar satellite,” the China's first lunar probe landed on the moon with, what Beijing called ‘controlled collision,’ on Sunday.

The state-run Xinhua news agency reported that the Chinese lunar satellite’s landing on the moon that took place at 1613 local time (0813 GMT). It marked the first phase of the nation's three-stage moon mission. The Chang'e 1 started to decrease its speed at 3:36 pm, with two observation and control stations in Qingdao and Kashgar, in the north-west of the country, regulating it remotely.

Launched on October 24, 2007, the 16-month moon-mapping mission, the Chang'e 1 is a mission to study the entire surface of the moon. It is named after a legendary moon goddess. It was launched into space on one of China's Long March 3A rockets. The Chang'e 1 uses stereo radar to map the moon's surface.

According to the Chinese state media, “the mission will culminate with the launch and landing of a rover on the moon to collect mineral samples in 2012”.

China’s ambitious future space programmes include building a space station and sending a manned mission to the moon. It became the only third nation, after the Soviet Union and the US, to put a manned spacecraft in orbit; it achieved the milestone in October 2003.

On Sunday, the Xinhua news agency revealed the Chinese plan to launch a space module next year and carry out the country's first space docking.  

The Xinhua news agency said, " The Tiangong I, or "Heavenly Palace I" is scheduled for launch in late 2010 and will dock with a Shenzhou VIII spacecraft early the following year.”

The Xinhua news agency elaborated, “The module, called Tiangong-1, will provide a safe room for Chinese astronauts to live and conduct scientific research in zero gravity. Weighing about 8.5 tonnes, Tiangong-1 is able to perform a long-term unattended operation, which will be an essential step toward building a space station.”