[FPSPACE] China Moon Mission Chang'e-1 In Good Condition

[LARRY KLAES]

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/China_Moon_Mission_ChangE_1_In_Good_Condition_999.html

China Moon Mission Chang'e-1 In Good Condition

by Staff Writers

Beijing (XNA) Oct 28, 2007

All the systems of China's lunar probe Chang'e-1 are in good conditions with 
the high energy solar particle detector and the low energy ion detector 
functioning properly on Saturday, according to the moon probe team.
The Chang'e-1, China's first moon orbiter, is currently moving on a 24-hour 
orbit with an apogee of 70,000 kilometers after it entered the orbit 
following its second orbital transfer at 5:33 p.m. on Friday, according to 
the Beijing Aerospace Control Center (BACC).

The lunar probe has traveled more than 500,000 kilometers so far. It has to 
travel a total of 1.59 million kilometers before it reaches the moon orbit 
as planned, said Ji Gang, an engineer of monitoring and controlling branch 
of the moon probe program.

The BACC said the VLBI beaconing machine on board the satellite has started 
operation in the early hours on Saturday, and China's four ground monitoring 
stations with the application of the VLBI, or "Very Long Baseline 
Interferometry", technology have monitoring Chang'e-1.

The VLBI technology helps to reduce the time needed for orbit determination, 
according Ji.

Ji said the probe will stay on the 24-hour orbit before it moves further 
from the earth to a 48-hour orbit on Oct. 29, which runs more than 260,000 
kilometers.

The satellite is expected to fly to the moon in a real sense after it enters 
the earth-moon transfer orbit on Oct. 31, and it is planned to arrive in the 
moon's orbit on Nov. 5.

The lunar probe completed its first orbital transfer Thursday afternoon, in 
which it was transferred to a 16-hour orbit with a perigee of about 600 
kilometers from 200 kilometers.

Chang'e-1, named after a mythical Chinese goddess who, according to legend, 
flew to the moon, blasted off on a Long March3A carrier rocket at 6:05 p.m. 
Wednesday from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in the southwestern 
province of Sichuan.

The satellite will relay the first picture of the moon in late November and 
will then continue scientific explorations of the moon for a year.