Chang'e 5-T1
Chang'e 5-T1 — a Chinese test flight, launched on 23 October 2014, that flew around the Moon and brought a capsule back to Earth, rehearsing the return of the Chang'e 5 lunar samples. The capsule skipped off the atmosphere to slow down and landed in Inner Mongolia on 31 October. Its service module flew on to a point beyond the far side of the Moon and then into lunar orbit, where it photographed the candidate Chang'e 5 landing sites. (Shown in the service module's lunar orbit, drawn to its published height and inclination; its position on it is representative.)
Key facts
Mission & specifications
Mission
- Operator
- CNSA
- Launched
- October 23, 2014
- Status
- Completed
Trajectory
- Distance from the Sun
- 1 AU
- Computed from the cached position
- Distance from Earth
- 0.335 AU
- Computed from cached positions
- Distance from Venus
- 0.367 AU
- Computed from cached positions
Mission
Chang'e 5-T1 was a rehearsal for the hardest part of bringing lunar samples home: coming back into Earth's atmosphere at nearly 11 km/s. It was launched on a Long March 3C from Xichang on 23 October 2014 at 18:00 UTC: a service module carrying a small capsule shaped like the one Chang'e 5 would use. It swung around the Moon on 27 October, passing about 11,300 km above it (NSSDCA; 12,000 km in NASA's history of the programme), and fell back toward Earth. The capsule separated on 31 October, skipped off the upper atmosphere to shed speed, re-entered and landed at Siziwang Banner in Inner Mongolia. NASA's history calls it the first circumlunar flight and recovery since the Soviet Zond 8 in 1970. The service module flew on. In November 2014 it went to the Earth–Moon L2 point beyond the far side, circled it three times, and in January 2015 went into orbit around the Moon, 200 km up at an inclination of 43.7°. There it rehearsed the rendezvous Chang'e 5 would need and, in 2015, flew as low as 30 km to photograph the candidate landing sites. It had made more than 4,100 orbits by March 2016; no end of its operations has been announced.
- 2014Chang'e 5-T1 launches toward the Moon on a Long March 3C rocketLaunch
A service module carrying a small return capsule.
NSSDCA's figure and that in NASA's history of the programme.
- 2014The capsule lands in Inner MongoliaMilestone
After skipping off the upper atmosphere to shed speed.
- 2014The service module reaches the Earth–Moon L2 pointArrival
It circles the point three times.
- 2015The service module in lunar orbitArrival
200 km up, inclined 43.7°.
Images
No openly licensed image of Chang'e 5-T1 or its capsule has been found.