Chang’e Missions

Chang’e (sometimes written Chang’E) is the name of a Chinese goddess of the Moon, used to refer to missions of the Chinese lunar exploration program conducted by the China National Space Administration (CNSA). The program is intended to include six lunar missions and two additional support missions. The program consists of three stages: orbital, landing, and sample return, each one involving two spacecraft (Harvey 2013).

Chang’e 1 initiated the program with a launch from Xichang on 24 October 2007. It entered a phased orbit trajectory to the Moon, making several orbits of Earth with successively increasing apogee until the last orbit encountered the Moon on 5 November, then entering lunar orbit and gradually maneuvering down into a circular mapping orbit. Mapping was conducted from an altitude of 200 km, and the data returned included global imagery at 120 m resolution, laser altimetry, microwave radiometry, and compositional and charged particle data. The orbital inclination of 70°...