BEIJING, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- China will release over
700 hours of data sent back by the Chang'e-1 satellite to domestic authorized
users and the European Space Agency, according to the State Administration of
Science Technology and Industry for National Defence (SASTIND) on Friday.
As of 2 p.m. on Friday, the country's first moon
probe satellite had sent back more than 700 hours of data to two ground
receiving stations, one in Miyun County on the outskirts of Beijing, and the
other in Kunming, capital of the southwestern Yunnan Province, according to
SASTIND.
The data included three-dimension data of the moon,
which was captured by a charge-coupled device (CCD) camera installed on the
satellite, SASTIND said.
The satellite had orbited the moon 3,024 times since
it was launched on Oct. 24. It marked the first step of China's ambitious
three-stage moon mission.
It was expected to experience another moon eclipse on
Aug. 16.
"Judging from the power consumption during the first
moon eclipse (in February), the satellite can survive the second trial," said Ye
Peijian, chief commander and designer of the country's first moon probe
satellite system.
Chang'e-1 went through its first moon eclipse test on
the morning of Feb. 21 for 2.5 hours and performed three orbital adjustments.
The remaining fuel weighed 270 kg.