Special report: China launches first lunar
orbiter
BEIJING, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- China's first lunar probe, Chang'e-1, stopped rotation at 9:00 a.m. on Monday and is preparing for its first braking at perilune to enter the moon's orbit.
Chang'e-1, following the instructions of the Beijing Aerospace Control Center (BACC), will carry out the braking at about 11:00 a.m. Monday to slow down, so that it can be captured by the lunar gravity and become a circumlunar satellite, said Wang Yejun, chief engineer of BACC.
"The speed of Chang'e-1 can reach 2.4 km per second when it arrives at perilune, and it will likely fly away from the moon if the braking is not conducted in time," Wang said.
"The first braking at perilune is another key moment in the long journey of Chang'e-1," he said.
China's first lunar probe, Chang'e-1, named after a legendary Chinese goddess who flew to the moon, blasted off on a Long March 3A carrier rocket on Oct. 24 from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwestern Sichuan Province.
BEIJING, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- China's first lunar probe
Chang'e-1will fly to the moon orbit with no more orbital corrections, a
scientist told Xinhua on Saturday.
Tang Geshi, a scientist with the Beijing Aerospace Control
Center (BACC), said that the center will order the satellite to apply the first
break at about 10:00 on Monday with no more planned orbital corrections. Full story
BEIJING, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) -- China's lunar
probe Chang'e-1 completed its fourth orbital transfer on Wednesday afternoon, a
critical move to push it to fly to the moon "in a real sense."
The engine on the probe was started at 5:15
p.m.. Thirteen minutes later, the probe was successfully shifted to the
earth-moon transfer orbit with an apogee of about 380,000 km. Full story
BEIJING, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- China's lunar
probe Chang'e-1 completed its third orbital transfer on Monday afternoon, one
more step forward in its 1,580,000-km journey to the moon.
Instructions for the orbital transfer was
issued by the Yuanwang-3 space tracking ship in south Pacific at around 5:56
pm. Full story
BEIJING, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- China's lunar
probe Chang'e-1 is expected to arrive at the apogee of more than 70,000
kilometers from the earth on early Saturday morning after having completed its
second orbital transfer on Friday, according to the moon probe team.
Chang'e-1, China's first moon orbiter, is now moving
on a 24-hour orbit and it is forecast to arrive at the apogee at around5:30 a.m.
on Saturday. Full story
BEIJING, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- China's first
lunar probe Chang'e-1 completed its first orbital transfer Thursday afternoon,
another key move in its 380,000-km journey to the moon.
The orbital transfer began at 5:55 p.m. and succeeded
after 130 seconds. The probe was transferred to an orbit with a perigee of about
600 km, up from the former 200-km perigee, according to the Beijing Aerospace
Control Center (BACC). Full story
BEIJING, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- Chinese scientists
have successfully activated the first probing equipment on the Chang'e-1 lunar
orbiter on Thursday evening to start exploring the space environment between
earth and moon. Full story
