Chang'e-2 lunar probe travels 70 mln km

Chang'e-2 lunar probe travels 70 mln km
by Staff Writers
Beijing (XNA) Feb 17, 2014

illustration only

China's second lunar probe, Chang'e-2, has traveled more than 70 million km into deep space in good condition, so far the longest voyage of a Chinese spacecraft, a senior engineer said Friday.

Chang'e-2 was launched on Oct. 1, 2010 to verify crucial technologies for Chang'e-3. It set off from its moon orbit for outer space in June 2011 after finishing all of its tasks.

Chang'e-2 is expected to travel as far as 300 million km from the earth, after which it will return to perigee of about 7 million km from the earth around 2029, said Zhou Jianliang, chief engineer of the Beijing Aerospace Control Center.

The probe will reach 100 million km from Earth in July of this year.

The control center has made many breakthroughs in fuel use and orbital decay technologies, which will boost China's future deep space exploration, Zhou said.

Source: Xinhua News Agency

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