The country's first lunar orbiter entered the moon's orbit after completing a critical maneuver, officials said yesterday.
Chang'e I, following the instructions of the Beijing Aerospace Control Center (BACC), started braking at 11:15 am at a position around 300 km from the moon and entered the moon's orbit 22 minutes later, the BACC said.
"It turned the satellite onto a circumlunar path, marking a milestone in China's space history," said Sun Laiyan, deputy head of the Commission of Science Technology and Industry for National Defense.
"So far, each step in the lunar probe project has been completed almost perfectly."
President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao sent congratulation letters to the scientists working on the mission, encouraging them to make further progress on the exploration of the moon.
Ma Yongping, deputy director of the BACC, said the braking was of great importance for Chang'e I, enabling it to be captured by lunar gravity.
He said that the probe had to arrive at the perilune - the point in a lunar orbit that is nearest to the moon - at the designed time and speed before it started braking.
"It would have flown away from the moon if the braking was too early, or crashed into the moon if the braking was too late," Ma said.
The orbiter is now traveling along a 12-hour elliptical moon orbit, with a perilune of about 200 km and an apolune - the point in a lunar orbit that is farthest from the moon - of about 8,600 km, said Pei Zhaoyu, spokesman for the China National Space Administration.
Pei said the orbiter's second braking at about 11 am today will slow its speed to 1.8 km per second, to enter a 3.5-hour orbit with a perilune of 200 km and an apolune of 1,700 km.
The third braking will take place at around 8:00 am tomorrow, further slowing the probe's speed to 1.59 km per second to enter a 127-minute round polar circular orbit.
"After the third braking, the orbiter will begin conducting scientific exploration work on the moon," said Pei.
Chang'e I is expected to relay the first pictures of the moon later this month. Its goal is to analyze the chemical and mineral composition of the lunar surface. It will use stereo cameras and X-ray spectrometers to map three-dimensional images of the surface and study the moon's dust.
The orbiter is the first step of a three-stage moon mission. In about 2012, China plans an unmanned lunar landing with a rover. In the third phase, about five years later, another rover is to land on the moon and be returned to Earth.
Source: China Daily/Xinhua
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