Chinese lunar probe completes first orbital transfer

Beijing: China''s first lunar probe, Chang''e-1, completed its first orbital transfer on Thursday afternoon. According to Ma Yongping, deputy director of Beijing Aerospace Command & Control Centre, "The transfer was successful. The probe moved to an orbit with a perigee of about 600 km, up from the former 200-km perigee."

The orbiter still has to undergo three accelerations in the coming week, which will further shorten its distance to the moon orbit. The next orbital transfer was expected to happen on Friday, in which it would enter a 24-hour trajectory and orbit the earth along the new trajectory for three days.

It is expected to enter earth-moon transfer orbit on Oct. 31 and the moon''s orbit on November 5th. The orbiter will relay the first lunar picture in late November and will then continue scientific explorations for a year.