The launch of Chang'e-1 kicks off the first step of China's three-stage moon mission, which will lead to a moon landing and launch of a moon rover at around 2012. In the third phase, another rover will land on the moon and return to earth with lunar soil and stone samples for scientific research at around 2017.
The BACC cancelled two pre-set orbital corrections while the probe traveled along the earth-moon transfer orbit from October 31 to November 5, calling them "unnecessary" as Chang'e-1 had been running accurately on the expected trajectory.
So far, the satellite has experienced four orbital transfers, one orbital correction and two brakings. All these maneuvers usually consumed a great deal of fuel, scientists explained.
Because of the planned maneuvers, the fuel that the 2,300-kg Chang'e-1 carries accounts for nearly half of the satellite's total weight.
Before the second braking, Chang'e-1 was traveling along a 12-hour elliptical moon orbit, with a perilune of about 210 km and an apolune of about 8,600 km.
Chang'e-1 successfully completed its first braking and entered the moon's orbit at around 11:37 a.m. on Monday, which made it become a "real" circumlunar satellite.
The probe, named after a legendary Chinese goddess who flew to the moon, blasted off on a Long March 3A carrier rocket on October 24 from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwestern Sichuan Province.
The probe is expected to fulfil four scientific objectives, including a three-dimensional survey of the Moon's surface, analysis of the abundance and distribution of elements on lunar surface, an investigation of the characteristics of lunar regolith and the powdery soil layer on the surface, and an exploration of the circumstance between the earth and the moon.
