Bull from a China sop.

Command Module design assisted by Reuters

Bloggers in the glorious Peoples Republic of China have recently been annoying the authorities with a bit of rumour and speculation.

Apparently Chinese internet gossip has it that the first photo of the moon taken from a lunar orbiter might have been plagiarised from NASA.

The country launched its first lunar probe, the Chang'e 1 (named after the Chinese Moon Goddess), in October and released a photo featuring a patch of grey moon surface splotched with craters last week, hailing the mission as a "complete success".

But some Chinese Internet users have questioned its originality after comparing it with an almost identical lunar image from the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Ouyang Ziyuan, chief scientist for the lunar probe vehemently rejected the suggestion stating that “There is absolutely no forgery,"

“The Chinese and U.S. lunar images looked similar only because they had aimed at the same area of the moon's southern hemisphere” Ouyang added..

However in an exclusive I can reveal several photographs from the Chinese moon landings due to take place in 2020.