Special report: China launches first lunar orbiter

    BEIJING, Nov. 7 (Xinhua) -- Pictures transmitted back by Chang'e-1, China's first lunar probe, will not show U.S. astronauts' footprints on the moon due to insufficient resolution, said a scientist on Wednesday afternoon.

    "It depends on the camera's resolution to decide the size of the things that can be shown in the pictures by the probe," said Sun Huixian, deputy chief designer of the satellite system, at a press conference.

    "If we want to see clearly from the picture a footprint with a length of 30 cm and a width of 10 cm, the camera must have a centimeter-level resolution. So far, no camera carried by lunar probes have reached such a resolution in the world," Sun said.

    "Therefore, I'm sure that pictures by Chang'e-1 will not show footprints left by U.S. astronauts on the moon," he said.

    Chang'e-1 completed its nearly two-million-km journey to the moon and entered its final orbit on Wednesday morning. It is expected to relay the first picture of the moon in late November.

    In 1969, the Apollo 11 mission, the world's first manned mission for moon landing, sent U.S. astronauts to the moon.