 | | Scientific working staff watch the screen showing the movement of China's lunar probe Chang'e-1 at the Beijing Aerospace Control Center (BACC) in Beijing, Oct. 31, 2007. Chang'e-1 completes its last orbital transfer before leaving earth on Wednesday afternoon, a critical move to push it to fly to the moon "in a real sense". |
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The first orbital correction for China's first lunar probe, Chang'e-1, scheduled for Thursday, has been cancelled because it is traveling on the expected trajectory, according to the Beijing Aerospace Control Center (BACC).
Chang'e-1 completed its fourth orbital transfer late Wednesday afternoon, shifting out of its 120,000-kilometer orbit around the Earth and moving toward a 380,000-kilometer circumlunar orbit Monday.
"We have been controlling Chang'e-1 in a very precise and excellent manner on its expected trajectory, so we decided to call off the first orbital correction planned for 10:25 a.m. Thursday," said Tong Bin, deputy chief engineer of the BACC.
But Chang'e-1 was still expected to go through one or two orbital corrections before reaching the moon's orbit at 11:25 a.m. Monday, Pei Zhaoyu, a spokesman for the China National Space Administration (CNSA), said Thursday.
Actually, the first orbital correction has been re-scheduled for Friday, said Wang Yejun, chief engineer of BACC.
"BACC will issue instructions to Chang'e-1 to ignite two small engines on board Friday and slightly modulate its trajectory, in a bid to guarantee that the satellite travels on the pre-set orbit," Wang said.
A second orbital correction might be carried out Sunday, Wang said.
He said that BACC collaborated with the European Space Agency (ESA) Thursday to observe and control Chang'e-1 and all information received from ESA's tracking station network showed that the moon orbiter was operating normally.
"It's the first time for BACC to conduct such an international cooperation to control Chang'e-1, which will enhance BACC's preciseness in further controlling the satellite," he said.
After the probe entered the moon's orbit, it would brake several times to slow down so that it can be captured by the lunar gravity and become a real circumlunar satellite.
It would relay the first picture of the moon in late November and would then continue scientific explorations of the moon for a year.
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.
The 2,350-kg satellite carried eight probing facilities, including a stereo camera and interferometer, an imager and gamma/x-ray spectrometer, a laser altimeter, a microwave detector, a high energy solar particle detector and a low energy ion detector.
It will fulfill four scientific objectives, including a three-dimensional survey of the Moon's surface, analysis of the abundance and distribution of elements on lunar surface, an investigation of the characteristics of lunar regolith and the powdery soil layer on the surface, and an exploration of the circumstance between the earth and the moon.
China's lunar orbiter project has cost 1.4 billion yuan (187 million U.S. dollars) since research and development of the project was approved at the beginning of 2004.
The launch of the orbiter marks the first step of China's three-stage moon mission, which will lead to a moon landing and launch of a moon rover at around 2012. In the third phase, another over will land on the moon and return to earth with lunar soil and stone samples for scientific research at around 2017.
China carried out its maiden piloted space flight in October 2003, making it only the third country in the world after the former Soviet Union and the United States to have sent men into space. In October 2005, China completed its second manned space flight, with two astronauts on board.
Source: Xinhua
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