Chinese news sources reported yesterday that China’s Chang’e 2 probe has left lunar orbit and is headed for “outer space about 1.5 million km from the earth.” One of the reports added that China has “no plan or timetable for a manned moon landing for now.”

Chang’e 2 arrived at the Moon last fall and has been mapping the lunar surface. China’s official Xinhua news agency reported that the probe completed its main tasks by April 1 and then conducted two additional lunar tasks: taking photos of the Moon’s north and south poles, and descending to within 15 kilometers (km) of the surface to obtain high resolution images of the Bay of Rainbows “the proposed landing ground for future lunar missions.” China is planning to send a robotic lander/rover to the Moon as well as a sample return mission. The most recent dates mentioned for those missions are 2013 and 2017, respectively.

Once those tasks were successfully completed, Chinese scientists decided that Chang’e 2 could be used for “additional exploratory tasks.” Xinhua said the probe is headed to a distance of 1.5 million kilometers and China Daily added that the Sun-Earth L2 Lagrange point is the destination. The China Daily report quoted a Chinese scientist as saying it is a point in space where several U.S. and European satellites are located, but most of those satellites are at the L1 Lagrange point. Europe does have two spacecraft (Herschel and Planck) at L2, and NASA’s much-delayed James Webb Space Telescope will be placed there.

Chang’e is the name of a mythical Chinese goddess who flew to the Moon.

China’s plans for sending astronauts — or “taikonauts” — to the Moon remain unclear. Many statements have been made in Chinese news sources over the years by various Chinese officials or academics that they are or are not planning human lunar missions. This Xinhua story says they have no such plans for now, but as with all such statements in the press, it is difficult to discern government policy. One way to gauge their plans is to look at what they actually are doing and there is no evidence that they are in any rush to send people beyond low Earth orbit. China’s slow but steady human spaceflight program appears focused on steadily increasing experience in low Earth orbit and creating a small space station there.

Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA), chairman of the House appropriations subcomittee that funds NASA, restated his well known opposition to U.S. space cooperation with China at a hearing of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission today.

The commission was created by Congress in 2000 to report on the national security implications of the trade and economic relationships between the two countries. It held a hearing today about the implications of China’s military and civil space activities. Witnesses included DOD’s Greg Schulte and Rep. Wolf as well as two panels of experts. Rep. Wolf’s statement was circulated by his staff. He began by expressing disappointment that NASA declined to participate in the hearing and that it was “reflective of this administration’s abysmal record on American leadership in space.”

He went on to restate his well known views about why the United States should not cooperate with China because of human rights abuses and Chinese arms sales to countries like Iran, for example. He asserted that Presidential Science Adviser John Holdren told his subcommitee at a hearing last week that the Obama Administration does not intend to comply with a provision Wolf included in the Continuing Resolution that prohibits spending funds to work with China in any manner to plan or execute space cooperation. “I take this blatant disregard for the law very seriously and the committee is currently reviewing its options,” he said.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) resumed control of its Kibo module and KOUNOTORI cargo spacecraft from the Tsukuba Space Centre at 4:00 pm JST (Japan Standard Time) March 22. Operations were temporarily transferred to NASA after the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

JAXA said the space center had been closed due to “damage and security issues caused the earthquake.”

Kibo is Japan’s laboratory that is an integrated component of the International Space Station (ISS). KOUNOTORI, more commonly known as HTV-2, is a cargo spacecraft temporarily berthed to the ISS. It is scheduled to unberth on March 29 JST and reenter on March 30 JST. The spacecraft is not designed to survive reentry and will burn up in the atmosphere.

The European Space Agency (ESA) announced today a new set of directors for various ESA offices and directorates. ESA announced a reorganization last fall, creating a new Directorate of Human Spaceflight and Operations and now has named former ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter, from Germany, to be its first head. The reorganization takes effect on April 1.

Reiter’s directorate will be responsible for ESA’s contribution to the International Space Station (ISS) program, ESA human spaceflight activities in general, and flight operations of ESA human spaceflight missions. Reiter spent almost six months aboard the Soviet space station Mir in the mid-1990s, and more than five months on the ISS in 2006. Currently he is Executive Board Member responsible for Space Research and Technology at the German Aerospace Center (DLR). Simonetta Di Pippo is currently ESA’s Director of Human Spaceflight.

Last week, ESA’s Council concurred with the proposal of the United States to extend ISS operations until at least 2020. ESA member states that participate in the ISS committed 550 million Euros to cover ISS costs through 2012 when further financial commitments are decided at the next meeting of the ESA Ministerial Council.

Among other ESA appointments are Mr. Alvaro Gim nez Ca ete as head of the Directorate for Science and Robotics, replacing David Southwood; Mr. Didier Faivre as head of the Directorate for ESA’s participation in the European Galileo navigation satellite program, for which he is currently Acting Director; and Mr. Franco Ongaro as head of the Directorate for Technical and Quality Management, replacing acting director Philippe Perol.

The appointments coincide with the beginning of ESA Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain’s third term, which lasts until 2015. ESA is an international organization with 18 Member States.

UPDATE: The second upper stage firing was successful and it has now separated from the ATV. The spacecraft will take one week to reach the ISS.

ORIGINAL STORY: The European Space Agency’s Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) cargo spacecraft was launched successfully by an Ariane V this afternoon. The launch was aborted yesterday. Everything appears well at the moment. The upper stage engine is due to be restarted in about 20 minutes to circularize the orbit.

The ATV is carrying about 7 tons of equipment and supplies for the International Space Station (ISS). The spacecraft weighs 20 tons overall and is the heaviest payload lofted by an Ariane launch vehicle. This is the 200th Ariane launch since the first launch of Ariane 1 in 1979. This second ATV mission is named Johannes Kepler. The first was called Jules Verne. The spacecraft is not designed to survive reentry and will burn up in the atmosphere at the end of its resupply mission.

Yesterday’s massive solar flare affected shortwave communications in southern China according to its Xinhua news agency.

As trumpted by NASA’s 3D Sun free iPhone App, this first “X-flare” of the new solar cycle is the “strongest solar flare in more than four years.” It was observed by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) and peaked at 01:56 Universal Time yesterday (Monday evening in the United States). NASA warns that X-flares are the strongest kind of solar flares and are likely to produce geomagnetic storms on Earth within about 48 hours.

Japan’s HTV2 cargo spacecraft successfully berthed to the International Space Station (ISS) today. HTV2 was launched on January 22 and is named Kounotori2 or “white stork.” The ISS crew used the station’s robotic arm to berth HTV2 to the Earth-facing port of the Harmony module, according to NASA’s ISS website. They plan to open it tomorrow.

It is the first of three cargo spacecraft from different parts of the world to resupply ISS in the next couple of weeks. Next is a Russian Progress cargo spacecraft that is awaiting launch tonight at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. It is scheduled to launch at 8:31 pm EST this evening and dock with the ISS on Saturday.

Europe’s cargo spacecraft, the ATV, is scheduled for launch on February 15.

NASA has a good website explaining the similarities and differences of these cargo spacecraft.

Despite the recent setback in its geostationary satellite program, India announced yesterday that it plans to launch 30 earth observation satellites in the next 10 years.

IndianExpress,com and other news sources quote Dr. V. Jayaraman, Director of India’s National Remote Sensing Center (NRSC), as saying yesterday that “We expect not less than 30 satellites” in the next decade. They will include satellites in the Resourcesat and Cartosat series as well as ocean and atmospheric satellites. The next launch is planned for late January or early February 2011. That satellite, Resourcesat-2, will provide “5.8 meters, 70 km multi-spectral data for the first time,” according to Jayaraman.

NRSC is part of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). Earth observation has been a core component of the Indian space program for the past three decades. Twenty-two earth observation satellites have been launched by or for India since 1979, nine of which are currently operating according to the ISRO website.

Three Russian space officials, including the head of the Russian space agency, have been reprimanded or lost their jobs because of the Proton rocket failure that doomed three GLONASS navigation satellites earlier this month.

The Associated Press (via the Washington Post) reports today that Russian space agency head Anatoliy Perminov was reprimanded, while the deputy head of the agency, Viktor Remishevsky, was fired. Vyacheslav Filin, Deputy Chief of RKK Energiya, the state-controlled company that built the rocket, also was fired according to the report.

Rebuilding the GLONASS system is a top priority for Russia’s space program. Similar in concept to the U.S. Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) system, GLONASS needs 24 operating satellites to provide three-dimensional global coverage. The three satellites lost in the December 5 accident were intended to complete the network.

An investigation board determined that workers did not put the proper amount of fuel into the new version of the DM upper stage used for the launch. It cleared the Proton launch vehicle itself, which has already returned to service using a different upper stage.

India’s launch of a new telecommunications satellite, GSAT-5P, failed today.

The onboard computer of the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) “lost control of the actuation system” 47 seconds into the launch according to IBNLive, which has footage of the failure and portions of a press conference with Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) Chairman K. Radhakrishnan. He said that the rocket “developed large amplitude errors leading to higher angle of attack, leading to higher structural loads, and leading to breaking up of the vehicle.”

Only two of the seven GSLV launch attempts so far have been successful according to IBNLive. India’s launches take place from Sriharikota, a barrier island in the Bay of Bengal.