25 November 2020
According to mission planners at the China National Space Administration, Chang'e 6 is scheduled to be launched around 2023. Its mission is to land at the moon's south pole and bring back rock and soil samples. Chang'e 7 is set to conduct a thorough investigation of the lunar south pole in 2024. Chang'e 8 will be tasked with testing and verifying cutting-edge technologies that may be applied in future moon expeditions, including a possible lunar outpost. The exact launch date and landing site of the Chang'e 6 mission will be determined by the results of the Chang'e 5 mission, said Liu Jizhong, Head of the Administration's lunar programme.
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24 November 2020
Chang'e 5 successfully carried out its 1st orbital correction in the late evening at 22:06 BJT on 24 November, according to the China National Space Administration (CNSA).
The probe operated its 3,000 N engine for about two seconds, and then continued its trip to the Moon. Prior to the orbital correction, the lunar probe had traveled for roughly 17 hours in space, and was about 160,000 km away from Earth. All of the probe's systems were in good condition, said the CNSA.
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Reasons for Chang'e 5's predawn launch time explained
article in Chinese with artists impression of Chang'e 5 lander
25 November 2020
Chang'e 4's lander and the rover have finished their 24th lunar-day working session and are now in a dormant state for the lunar night. During the most recent lunar day, which started on Nov 9, Yutu 2 continued moving to the northwest of Chang'e 4's landing site in the South Pole-Aitken Basin. The 4 scientific apparatus mounted on the vehicle - a panoramic camera, a lunar penetrating radar, a visible and near-infrared imaging spectrometer and the Swedish-developed Advanced Small Analyzer for Neutrals - were activated to conduct scientific investigations.
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23 November 2020
Discussions around the prospects of applying China's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) to the Internet of Everything will highlight the 11th China Satellite Navigation Conference that opened in southwest China's Chengdu City on 23 November. The 3-day event, consisting of forums, academic exchanges, and other sub-events, is seeing experts and scholars in satellite navigation and related fields at home and abroad exchange their ideas around themes of "science and technology" and "application and industrialization." It is the first significant event of exchanges on satellite navigation to be hosted by China following the commissioning of the BDS-3 system on 31 July 2020.
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24 November 2020
About six minutes after the launch of the Chang'e 5 lunar probe, Yuanwang 6 detected and locked on to the target, and completed its monitoring. After the rocket traveled for more than 30 minutes, Yuanwang 5 continued the task.
Yuanwang 5 and Yuanwang 6 will now leave their positions in the Pacific Ocean and sail to their next mission areas, while Yuanwang-3 will participate in the follow-up monitoring work for the lunar probe.
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24 November 2020
As a Long March-5 rocket carrying the Chang’e-5 lunar spacecraft blasted off from Wenchang, Hainan this morning, “a long journey just begins,” said Pei Zhaoyu, Deputy Chief of the lunar programme at the China National Space Administration. “It is the Chinese space programme’s most complex mission ever,” Pei said on state television.
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