According to the Tuesday, September 29, 2009 AFP/Google article “China 'completes 3D moon map',” the announcement was made by Liu Xianlin, the leader of the review panel that oversees the Chang’e 1 mission.

Chang’e 1 is the first lunar orbiter sent by the Chinese to the Moon. It was launched on October 24, 2007, from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center.

After traveling from Earth to the Moon, the spacecraft entered lunar orbit on November 5, 2007.

It began its mapping mission of the Moon, less than one month later, on November 26, 2007, and completed its mapping of the entire lunar surface in less than one year, in July 2008.

Xianlin, of the Chinese Academy of Surveying and Mapping, stated, "This map finishes the primary prospecting of the moon and lays the foundation for further surveys such as choosing the landing point or the path of a satellite.” [AFP]

China has an ambitious space exploration program. It placed its first astronaut into space in 2003 and performed its first spacewalk in 2008.

The Chinese, through its Chinese National Space Administration (CNSA), hopes to send an unmanned rover to the Moon by 2012 and plans to send a manned spacecraft to the Moon by 2020.