China’s Chang’e-6 Space Probe in Proper Circumlunar Orbit

Chinese probe Chang’e-6, whose task is to collect and deliver to Earth samples of lunar soil from the hidden side of our satellite, has successfully entered near-lunar orbit. As the China National Space Administration recalled, the probe, delivered into space by the Long March-5 YB carrier rocket, was launched on May 3 from the Wenchang spaceport in the southern province of Hainan. The probe carries the China-Pakistan Icube-Q satellite, designed and developed by the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) in collaboration with Pakistan’s National Space Agency and Shanghai University of China. It is an orbiter equipped with two powerful cameras to take pictures of the lunar surface from orbit.

The launch of the Chang’e-6 probe is part of a major Chinese lunar exploration program: at the end of March, China launched the Queqiao-2 relay satellite, designed to ensure stable and ultra-fast communication between our planet and the surface of the Earth’s natural satellite in connection with the arrival of Chinese vehicles on the Moon. China became the third country in the world, after the USA and the Soviet Union, to accomplish such a mission. Beijing expects a crewed mission to fly to the moon by 2030.

Meanwhile, Russia and China are actively working on an unprecedented mini nuclear power plant project to be delivered and installed on the Moon to ensure future electricity supplies in large quantities. According to Yuri Borisov, director of Russia’s state space agency Roscosmos, “the development of a nuclear power plant that Russia plans to place on the Moon between 2033 and 2035 has begun thanks to a joint project with China.” Thus, Moscow intends to contribute to the implementation of the joint lunar base project with China by building a small nuclear power plant.