CHANG’E-3 successfully soft-landed on the moon Saturday, fulfilling the Chinese nation’s long-awaited dream of a moon landing.

    The Chang’e-3 lunar exploration program has been in the spotlight since the mission’s successful launch earlier this month.

    “(Developing space programs) is also a way to mobilize resources and to concentrate resources in a way that could result in certain types of spinoff technologies,” said Mark Stokes, executive director of the Project 2049 Institute, a research organization in Washington, D.C., that focuses on security issues in Asia.

    Above all, China has been learning how to orchestrate complicated engineering tasks, said Dean Cheng, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation in Washington who has studied China’s space programs.

    As well as patriotic pride, China’s space activities are generating skills to enhance the country’s science, satellites and military, The New York Times quoted experts as saying.

    Dr. Maurizio Falanga, director with the International Space Science Institute in Beijing, said China had used “challenging technology” in the mission that would win respect in international space communities.

    Dr. Morris Jones, a space analyst based in Australia, said: “This mission should serve as a wake-up call to people who have ignored the Chinese space program. Awareness of how much progress China has made in space flight is not as high on the global scale as it should be.” (SD-Xinhua)