BEIJING - 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 October 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 October 31, and it is planned to arrive in the moon's orbit on November 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 March 3A 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.
