BEIJING, Nov. 11 (Xinhuanet) -- China says it’s preparing to launch and land its Chang’e 3 satellite on the moon by the second half of next year. President of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, Ma Xing-rui, made the statement in a group interview at the 18th Party Congress.

And he has also spoke about the Tiangong-1 unmanned space module which is awaiting the Shenzhou 10 docking mission in 2013.

Ma Xingrui said, "According to our plan, the Long March 5 will be launched at the end of 2014.

At this moment, we are still carrying out research and development. And we are also planning to launch the Chang’e 3 in the latter half of next year as part of our lunar missions. It will be the first time a Chinese space vehicle has made a soft landing on the moon.

We will set up our independent space station by around 2020, and we also have plans to further develop the global Beidou satellite navigation and observation systems."