24 November 2020
The Long March-5 Y5, China's state-of-the-art carrier rocket and strongest member of the Long March launch vehicle family, took off at 4:30 BJT in the early morning of the 24 November BJT from the Wenchang Space Launch Centre located in South China's Hainan Province, successfully sending the Chang'e-5 lunar probe into planned orbit. About 2,200 seconds after lift-off, the Chang'e-5 lunar probe separated from the rocket and entered the Earth-Moon transfer orbit with the perigee at 200 km and the apogee at about 410,000 km.
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23 November 2020
Fuelling of the Long March 5 for launching the Chang'e 5 mission (Y5 = 5th launch of CZ-5) started in the early evening of 23 November - at around 18:30 h BJT. The launch is scheduled for the very early morning hours on 24 November BJT. ESA reported that they prepare for a launch at 21:35 CET on 23 November, providing support for critical mission phases - during launch and upon return "around" 15 December when preparing for the skip re-entry.
The launch will make a nice play with figures, since the 5th flight of the Long March 5 will launch the 5th Chinese lunar mission. Sounds like 5 is a lucky number. ;-) Much success!
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China's Moon missions - an overview
it might be that CGTN will provide live coverage of the launch
20 November 2020
China's 2nd-generation space tracking ship Yuanwang 3 left port on 19 November for missions concerning the Chang'e 5 lunar sample return mission, according to sources with the country's satellite maritime tracking and controlling department.
The Chang'e 5's mission task is to bring approx. 2 kg of Moon samples back to Earth, making it one of China's most complicated and challenging space explorations. Yuanwang 3 mainly undertakes maritime tracking and monitoring tasks of high-, medium- and low-orbit satellites, spacecraft and space stations.
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China's space tracking department in final sprint of this year
Tourists are heading for Hainan to see Chang'e 5 launch
19 November 2020
On 23 November, ESA’s Kourou station, located in French Guiana, will track the Chinese lunar mission, Chang’e-5, for several hours shortly after it launches. During this early phase, it is important to determine exactly where the spacecraft is in order to establish a communication link and verify the health of the newly launched craft. Kourou station will provide a way for the Chinese mission control team at the Beijing Aerospace Control Centre to acquire data from the spacecraft and confirm the status of the mission and its orbit.
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19 November 2020
China's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS-3) has passed technical verification on its key performance indicators for applications in the civil aviation sector, according to the civil aviation authorities. This means that the main work of the BDS-3 system has been completed ahead of its draft into the standards of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC). It was the first time for the BDS-3 system-related civil signals to receive and pass the systematic technical verification by an international organization.
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17 November 2020
China has completed building the country's first deep space antenna at a ground station in Kashi, Northwest China's Xinjiang, which will be directly used for spacecraft tracking and monitoring missions, including the Tianwen 1 Mars probe and the upcoming Chang'e 5 lunar sample return mission, the Xi'an Satellite Control Center, the Kashi station's operator, announced on 17 November.
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RELATED - report on the Kashgar antenna extension in SCMP