Beijing: China's first lunar probe today entered its working orbit, marking the success of its journey to begin studying the moon surface.

Following commands, Chang'e 1 entered a 127-minute round polar circular orbit after nearly two million kms journey to reach its final destination for carrying out planned scientific exploration, the state media reported.

"It marks success of the probes long flight to the moon," Luan Enjie, chief commander of China s lunar probe project, said.

"The satellite entered the designed working orbit just in time and very accurately today," Sun Jiandong, Chief Designer of China s ambitious project, was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua news agency.

China sent its first satellite into the Earth orbit in 1970 and put its astronauts into space using its own rocket in October 2003,making it the third country after Russia and the US to do so. In October 2005,China completed its second manned space flight with two astronauts on board.

According to a report the 2,350 kg China's most sophisticated satellite will open all the instruments onboard to start scientific explorations after a period of orbit testing. Chang e-1 was originally designed to stay in the orbit for a year but it is now estimated that smooth operations and precise manoeuvres may have saved 200 kg of fuel that may help prolong the probe s life span.

In the probe s 15-day flight since its launch, two orbital corrections were cancelled, saving a lot of fuel, as Chang e-1 had been flying accurately on the expected trajectory, the Beijing Aerospace Control Centre said.

Source : PTI