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Chang’e-1 in second orbital transfer

BEIJING: China’s lunar probe Chang’e-1 completed its second orbital transfer on Friday, in its 3,80,000-km journey to the Moon.

The transfer began at 4:50 p.m. and was completed at 5:44 p.m. The probe was transferred to a 24-hour orbit with an apogee of 70,000 km, up from the former 50,000 km, according to sources from an observation ship at the southern Pacific. The lunar probe completed its first orbital transfer on Thursday, in which it was transferred to a 16-hour orbit with a perigee of about 600 km from 200 km. Chang’e-1 blasted off on a Long March3A carrier rocket on Wednesday from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in the southwestern province of Sichuan.

The satellite is expected to enter Earth-Moon transfer orbit on October 31 — Xinhua

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