Chang'e No.1 satellite ready for launch

Chinanews, Beijing, Oct 17 – Chang'e
No. 1 satellite and the carrier rocket that will be used to send Chang'e into
space have been placed in the Xichang Satellite Launching Center. At present,
the satellite has been injected with enough fuels and has been connected to the
carrier rocket, said Zhang Qingwei, director of the Commission of Science,
Technology and Industry for National Defense, on Tuesday.

In the next step, scientists will test to make sure that the satellite,
the carrier rocket and all the launching system can function well. Since this
will be the first time for China to send a satellite to the moon, some tasks
which will be carried out in the moon will be difficult to be simulated on the
earth. The moon is located some 380,000 kilometers away from the earth, it might
be difficult for scientists to monitor exactly the flying speed, the location
and the shape of the satellite in space during the launch. “This requires that
scientists should have a high skill in accomplishing the tasks, ” Zhang said.

To cite an example, Zhang said when the satellite shifts from the earth
orbit to the moon orbit, scientists should be able to make the satellite stop at
the last point so that it can make the transition correctly. If scientists can't
do it in time, the satellite might then fly out of the moon orbit. In order to
make sure that everything can go well as planned, scientists are still doing
research about this.

“In order to avoid these risks, we have devoted more efforts to analyzing
the possible technical risks and we have to work out several hundred different
schemes to counter them. At the same time, we will try to make use of some
global space network resources to make sure that the launching can be a
success,” Zhang noted.

“Although there might be great risks, we are still confident that the
launching can be successful. We hope that people from all walks of life can
understand us and support our work,” Zhang said.

Three years ago, China approved Chang'e No. 1 moon probe project. Over
the past three years, Chinese scientists and engineers have worked hard to
obtain several key technologies related with the project. The Chang’e No.1 moon
probe satellite is expected to be launched in late October, Zhang said.