Scientist: lunar probe to fly to moon orbit with no more trajectory corrections

Source: Xinhuanet | 11-05-2007 13:43

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.

BACC carried out an orbital correction of Chang'e-1 on Friday, about nine days after its launch. "The correction has made the satellite run accurately in the transforming orbit heading to the moon, and another correction planned on November 4 will be unnecessary," Tang said.

The Chang'e-1 lunar probe has been flying at a speed of 500-meter per second to the space where the moon's gravity could capture it.

It has completed four orbital transforms and one halfway correction and is expected to enter the moon orbit on November 5.

China's first lunar probe, Chang'e-1, named after a fairy-tale 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.

Editor:Du Xiaodan