The nation's first moon orbiter is scheduled to blast off at
around 6 PM tomorrow from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in
southwest China's Sichuan Province.
"It will be launched between October 24 and 26 and our first
choice is around 6 PM on October 24," Li Guoping, spokesman for the
China National Space Administration, said Monday.
The launch window is about 35 minutes; and similar slots are
available on Thursday and Friday, he said.
The circumlunar satellite, named Chang'e I after the legendary
Chinese fairy who flew to the moon, and the Long March 3A carrier
rocket have passed all pre-launch tests and have been transported
to the launch site.
The lunar orbiter is expected to enter the Earth-moon transfer
orbit on October 31; and the moon's orbit, 380,000 km from Earth,
on November 5.
The satellite will relay the first pictures of the moon in late
November and will continue scientific exploration for a year.
The orbiter will execute a series of projects including the
capture of 3-D images and analysis of the distribution of elements
on the moon's surface, according to the spokesman.
"Experts from foreign space agencies have been invited to watch
the launch at the site," he said.
Work will start this morning to inject conventional fuel into
the carrier rocket, which will last about 6 hours, said a senior
engineer surnamed Cheng at the launch center.
Liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen, both non-polluting and
high-efficient fuels, will be injected around noon tomorrow, he
said.
Li, an engineer who has been working at the center for more than
two decades, sounded confident about the launch. "There has been no
launch failure in Xichang since 1997, and all the past 14 launches
of the Long March 3-A were successful."
But he added that weather is a factor that might influence the
launch.
The sky in Xichang finally turned blue and the sun shone
brightly Monday after more than 10 days of rain. Local
meteorologists forecast clear or cloudy skies till Saturday.
But if the launch cannot be carried out for any reason before
Friday, the lunar orbiter will have to wait till next April for a
suitable launch window to blast off, according to Cen Zheng, chief
commander of the carrier-rocket system.
Initiated in January 2004, the moon exploration project has
three stages - "Circling the moon, Landing on the moon and Return
to Earth".
The latter two involve landing an unmanned rover on the moon
around 2012; and bringing back lunar soil and rock samples around
2017, according to earlier reports.
As the initial phase of the lunar probe program, the orbiting
mission will "lay the technical foundation" for later stages of
development, said Li.
If successful, the mission will become the third milestone in
China's space achievements after manned flights in 2003 and
2005.
(China Daily October 23, 2007)