Flicking around the Chinese TV channels waiting for the launch, I came across one that had turned the studio set into a replica of the surface of the moon.
The presenter was sitting at a 'lunar rock' table, while a scientist sat opposite armed with a model of the rocket and its payload Chang' e 1.
Space fever was gripping the government TV channels, newspapers have been giving it pages of coverage and some Chinese tourists have paid up to €150 for tickets to watch the launch down in Sichuan province in south western China.
The Chang'e 1 is named after a legendary Chinese goddess who flew to the moon and never returned,
This circumlunar satellite will orbit the Moon for a year and will never return either - but the Chinese plan that, it is just the start of their lunar programme.
The Chang'e 1 was launched from Sichuan province just after 11am Irish time by a Chinese made Long March carrier rocket.
It will enter the Moon's orbit on 5 November and begin sending back photographs and data in late November.
The scientific goals are to capture 3-d images and to analyse the elements on the moon's surface - but this is also about establishing China as a power in space and displaying its ability to mount a technologically sophisticated mission.
At last week's party congress, the Chinese president, Hu Jintao, made several references to China's determination to develop domestic technological innovation - China wants to show it can compete scientifically at the highest levels.
It plans to put a probe on the Moon's surface in 2012 and to successfully return a second rover to Earth five years later. Manned missions to the Moon could well follow.
There has been a new interest in moon exploration - Japan launched an orbiter just weeks ago, India will follow in April and the US is also planning a launch next year.
China has already conducted two manned space flights - becoming only the third country to do so.
It says its intentions in space are purely peaceful though it caused some alarm earlier this year when it shot down one of its own satellites with an anti satellite missile.
