Post date: Dec 14, 2013 10:43:29 AM
China - Chang'e-3/Soft Landing
China Central Television (CCTV) - China's lunar probe Chang'e-3 has been ready for a scheduled soft landing on the moon's surface on Saturday.
Chang'e-3 is now descending from a 100 kilometer-high lunar orbit to an elliptical orbit, 15 kilometers from the moon's surface when flying to the obit's nearest point to the moon.After several trial operations, the probe will make its soft landing Saturday night.
"Today we will go through the last rehearsal. We feel confident and believe we are ready for the subsequent tasks," said Wen Weibing, a ground system dispatcher of Chang'e-3 lunar probe mission.
According to the Beijing Aerospace Control Center (BACC), the flying control system is ready, satellites and spacecraft control departments are monitoring the operation of various equipments around the clock. Orbit designers are making the final assessment on landing orbit control and post-landing task data for the last time to make sure everything goes well.
The probe, which is carrying the moon rover "Yutu", was successfully launched on Dec. 2, fromChina's Xichang Satellite Launch Center. It is the first time a Chinese spacecraft trying to make a soft landing on a non-earth surface.
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