Space travel
Satellite for Chinese lunar mission reaches orbit
A carrier rocket carrying the Queqiao-2 relay satellite lifted off from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in southern China’s Hainan Province on March 20. photo
© Yang Guanyu/XinHua/dpa
The race for the moon is in full swing. Now China has taken an important step for its upcoming mission.
China’s relay satellite “Queqiao-2” successfully completed its planned orbit around the Moon reached. After a travel time of around 112 hours, the satellite initiated the braking maneuver and is now flying at a distance of around 440 kilometers from the lunar surface, the Chinese space agency CNSA announced on Monday in Beijing. “Queqiao-2” set off from the spaceport on the southern Chinese island of Hainan last Wednesday. The satellite, whose name means bridge of magpies according to a Chinese folk tale, is intended to ensure communications for the upcoming lunar mission “Chang’e-6”.
The mission is expected to start in May towards Earth’s satellite. With “Chang’e-6”, China wants to collect soil samples in the south on the far side of the moon, among other things. Without Queqiao-2, the control center would not be able to send signals there from Earth. The satellite is therefore an important node in the communications triangle. China has been aggressively pushing forward its space program for some time. In the race of various spacefaring nations to the moon, the People’s Republic wants to create the first manned lunar mission with “Chang’e-8” by 2030.