Mission Summary
Chang’e 2 began as a backup to China’s first lunar orbiter but grew into one of the most well-traveled spacecraft of its era, going from the Moon to a deep-space Lagrange point and on to an asteroid. Launched October 1, 2010, it was meant to scout the way for the Chang’e 3 landing mission with a sharper set of instruments.
Reaching the Moon in under five days on a direct trajectory, Chang’e 2 mapped the surface from a 100-kilometer orbit and dipped as low as 15 kilometers to photograph the planned Chang’e 3 landing site in fine detail. In 2012 China released a full map of the Moon at seven-meter resolution, the sharpest of its time apart from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
With fuel to spare, the orbiter set off on an ambitious extended mission. In 2011 it flew to the Sun-Earth L2 Lagrange point, making China only the third power to reach one, and in December 2012 it swept past the asteroid Toutatis at a distance of less than two kilometers, China’s first asteroid encounter. Chang’e 2 then continued on into orbit around the Sun.
Sources and notes can be found on the Sources page.
