China's first lunar probe Chang'e-1 will fly to the moon orbit
with no more orbital corrections, a scientist told Xinhua on
Saturday.
Tang Geshi, a scientist with the Beijing Aerospace Control
Center (BACC), said that the center will order the satellite to
apply the first break at about 10:00 on Monday with no more planned
orbital corrections.
BACC carried out an orbital correction of Chang'e-1 on Friday,
about nine days after its launch. "The correction has made the
satellite run accurately in the transforming orbit heading to the
moon, and another correction planned on November 4 will be
unnecessary," Tang said.
The Chang'e-1 lunar probe has been flying at a speed of
500-meter per second to the space where the moon's gravity could
capture it.
It has completed four orbital transforms and one halfway
correction and is expected to enter the moon orbit on November
5.
China's first lunar probe, Chang'e-1, named after a fairy-tale
Chinese goddess who flew to the moon, blasted off on a Long March
3A carrier rocket on Oct. 24 from the Xichang Satellite Launch
Center in southwestern Sichuan Province.
(Xinhua News Agency November 4, 2007)