Progress spacecraft M-63, serial number 363, also designated Progress 28P, has been launched by the Russian Federal Space Agency on a mission to resupply the International Space Station. Liftoff, atop a Soyuz-U carrier rocket occurred at 13:02 GMT, from Area 1/5 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The spacecraft will dock with the space station on Thursday, a few hours ahead of the scheduled launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis on STS-122, with the Columbus module, a new laboratory which will enhance the outpost's research capabilities.

The Progress spacecraft is used to deliver supplies and experiments to the station. Typically four or five are launched each year, with the two most recently launched remaining on station, the oldest being undocked and de-orbited shortly before the arrival of a new one. However in this case, owing to the imminent Space Shuttle launch, there is currently no Progress spacecraft at the ISS, following the undocking of Progress M-62 yesterday.

Progress spacecraft, which are loose analogues of the Soyuz spacecraft, have been used as resupply craft in space station programmes since Salyut 6. Progress M-63 is the 28th Progress spacecraft to fly as part of the ISS programme.

This is the fourth orbital launch of 2008, and the second for Russia.

China has confirmed that the newest generation of Long March rockets has been re-scheduled to enter use in 2014.

Liang Xiaohong, Vice President of China's Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, also confirmed that the Changzheng 5 design was built around pollution-free technologies.

The rocket has been under development since 2002, and was initially said to require only six years' research. However the new design, which will allow more than twice the payload of previous models, has seen a number of delays in funding and development.

Due to the large size of the new rockets, a new 200-hectare launch centre has been under construction at the existing Wenchang Satellite Launch Center since September.

Until then, China is relying on its older fleet of rockets to carry on its space program, consisting of more than ten launches scheduled for this year. This month a CA-3a rocket will take a Beidou navigation system into Medium Earth Orbit.

The People's Republic of China today launched its first moon orbiter as part of the country's lunar exploration program.

At 18:00 hours local time (10:00 UTC) the rocket Chang'e 1 lifted off from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwestern China. The name of the probe refers to the Chinese goddess of the moon.

The state television network broadcasted live footage of the countdown and launch, which took place in the presence of Chinese officials and some 2,000 Chinese who paid around US$100 to attend the event, but without any international press.

The 2350 kg probe is expected to enter a lunar orbit on November 5. On its year-long mission, Chang'e 1 will obtain three dimensional images of the Moon's surface and gather information related to the chemical and physical properties of the lunar soil. It will do so circulating at about 200 kilometers above the lunar surface. On its way to the Moon the spacecraft will register data regarding the solar winds, or space weather. It will also broadcast 30 patriotic Chinese songs when orbiting the Moon.

The officially-Communist nation which hosts next year's Olympics hopes to put a taikonaut on the moon in 10 to 15 years. Last month, Japan launched a lunar probe while India hopes to achieve the same next April. In 2003, China used one of their own rockets to get the astronaut Yang Liwei into space. Yang told the Xinhua News Agency last week that once China has a manned space station, he and his fellow taikonauts could form a new branch of the Communist Party in space.

Last January, China used a rocket to blow up one of its own satellites, sparking fears from the United States and other countries that China might have a military agenda in space, besides the problems of space pollution and danger to other satellites the explosion caused. China says the goals of its space program are scientific and peaceful.

An H-IIA rocket, carrying the SELENE lunar orbiter and several smaller satellites, was launched on Friday September 14 from the Tanegashima Space Center in Japan.

The launch, conducted at 01:31 GMT by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), begins the voyage of SELENE to the Moon, and Japanese space officials say that the mission has been going smoothly.

"The flight has been proceeding smoothly to this point. We haven't had any reports of problems with any of the equipment," said JAXA spokesman Seiji Toyama who also added that the probe is about to finish its first of two orbits around Earth.

JAXA will be placed in orbit 60 miles (100 kilometers) above the Moon's surface where two smaller probes will be released and then begin to orbit the Moon at both poles. Scientists are hoping that the data will shed more light on how the Moon was formed, and how it has evolved through time. They also hope to study the composition of dust samples from the surface and are planning on taking 3-D images of the Moon's surface.

JAXA was forced to delay the launch by three days, with the launch originally scheduled to occur on September 11.