Economic Trend News
- Chang'e makesthird transfer
Date: 30-Oct-2007 Sources: (Xinhua Online)
CHINA'S lunar probe Chang'e I completed its third orbital transfer yesterday, one more step forward in its 1,580,000-km journey to the moon.
Instructions for the orbital transfer was issued by the Yuanwang III space tracking ship in the South Pacific at around 5:56 p.m.
At around 6:01 p.m., the probe was successfully transferred to a 48-hour orbit with an apogee of 120,000 km, up from the 70,000 km.
It will stay in this orbit until tomorrow, when it is expected to enter the earth-moon transfer orbit, a critical point that may determine whether the satellite can continue flying to the moon successfully or not, according to experts at the Beijing Aerospace Control Center (BACC).
Ultraviolet image sensors installed on the satellite will begin collecting information on the earth and the moon after it enters the 48-hour orbit, Wang Yejun, chief engineer with the BACC said.
It's the first time that an ultraviolet image sensor has been put into use on a satellite although a few countries had tested them on the ground, Wang said.
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