BEIJING, Dec. 12 (Xinhuanet) -- China's lunar probe Chang'e-3 has moved a step closer to the moon. The probe descended from a 100 kilometer-high lunar orbit to an elliptical orbit with its nearest point, just 15 kilometers from the moon's surface.
The State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense says the transition was made while the probe transited the dark side of the moon at 9:20 p.m. on Tuesday, Beijing time. The transition took around four minutes. Chang’e-3 will now prepare for a soft-landing on the moon’s surface. T
he probe, which is carrying the moon rover "Yutu", was successfully launched on December the 2nd, from China’s Xichang Satellite Launch Center. The moon landing is set to take place around mid-December, the first time a Chinese spacecraft has made a soft landing on a non-earth surface.
(Source: CNTV.cn)
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