China is making "preliminary" preparations to send a man to the moon, state media cited a senior space official as saying, the latest goal in China's ambitious lunar exploration program.

China in 2003 became the third country to put a man in space with its own rocket after the former Soviet Union and the United States. It has touted its plans for moon exploration and in late 2013 completed the first lunar "soft landing" since 1976 with the Chang'e-3 craft and its Jade Rabbit rover.

The country also plans to land the first probe ever on the dark side of the moon in 2018, another milestone. Yang Liwei, deputy director general of China Manned Space Agency and China's first man in space, said it will "not take long" for the manned mission to the moon to get official approval and funding, state news agency Xinhua said late on Tuesday.

The report gave no other details, but such a trip could still be many years off. A government official said last year that China wants to put astronauts on the moon by 2036, in what state media said was the country's first confirmation of a manned lunar exploration program.

Advancing China's space program is a priority for Beijing, with President Xi Jinping calling for the country to establish itself as a space power. China insists its program is for peaceful purposes, but the U.S. Defense Department has highlighted China's increasing space capabilities, saying it is pursuing activities aimed to prevent adversaries from using space-based assets in a crisis.

Apart from its civilian ambitions, Beijing has tested anti-satellite missiles, and the U.S. Congress has banned NASA from engaging in cooperation with its Chinese counterpart due to security concerns.

China's space budget is still only about one-tenth of the United States' outlays, officials have said. According to Chinese state media, China spends about $2 billion a year on its space program, though details are vague.

China has released an update on the fate of its orbiting Tiangong-1 space lab, which in March 2016 was revealed to be no longer functioning and would be making an uncontrolled reentry into the Earth's atmosphere. 

According to a note verbale from the Permanent Mission of China to the United Nations (Vienna), Tiangong-1's average orbital altitude is 349 kilometres, decaying at a daily rate of approximately 160 metres. Its re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere is expected to occur between October 2017 and April 2018.

The unsigned diplomatic note (pdf) addressed to Secretary-General provided the update on the re-entry of the 8 metric tonne Tiangong-1 space lab, whose name means 'heavenly palace', on May 10.

In September Wu Ping, deputy director of the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA), stated that Tiangong-1 was orbiting at an altitude of 370 km and declining by 110 metres per day, with reentry expected in the latter half of 2017.

The 10m long, 3.35m wide Tiangong-1 space lab was launched in September 2011 as a stepping stone on the way to a large modular Chinese space station, with the Tianhe core module looking set for launch in early 2019.

Crucially, Tiangong-1 demonstrated rendezvous and docking technologies, completing the procedures six times with the uncrewed Shenzhou-8 and crewed Shenzhou-9 and Shenzhou-10 spacecraft between 2011 and 2013.

Tiangong-1 hosted two three-person crews, including China's first woman in space, Liu Yang, in June 2012, and facilitated a live space lecture by Wang Yaping to millions of school children in June 2013, while providing tests of life support systems.

Tiangong-2, launched last year, last month received China's first cargo spacecraft, Tianzhou-1, in a successful test of on-orbit refuelling technologies crucial to the maintenance of a permanently crewed space station.

The communication went on to state that China would act to enhance its tracking and monitoring of Tiangong-1’s orbit and publish timely forecasts of its re-entry. The China Manned Space Agency will also be providing information on Tiangong-1’s orbital status in real time through its website, in both Chinese and English.

Atmospheric drag - caused by collisions between the spacecraft and molecules - is responsible for the decay of the orbit Tiangong-1, as with other satellites in low Earth orbit. The Earth's atmosphere is also likely to see to it that most of the spacecraft is not a threat to the surface.

A Universe Today article - in constrast to many sensationalist reports - states that the likelihood of any person being struck by a piece of space debris is 1-in-3,200, citing a NASA scientist discussing the upcoming reentry of the 6-ton UARS satellite in 2011.

  

Conversely Russia's Mir space station was deorbited through a controlled reentry over the South Pacific in 2001.

China says it will announce the final re-entry time and the area likely to be affected well in advance and will issue the relevant information and early warnings in a timely manner, bringing information to the attention of the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) through diplomatic channels and to the public through news agencies.