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On Nov. 1, China became the third country in the world to successfully send an unmanned probe to and back from the Moon aside from the United States and Russia.
Named as "Xiaofei" on China's social networks, the trial lunar orbiter recently landed in China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region's Siziwang Banner in the early morning of Nov. 1.
The trial lunar orbiter was retrieved by China's search teams roughly 500 kilometers from Beijing.
The launching of the lunar orbiter occurred on Oct 24. The orbiter traveled 840,000 kilometers on the far side of the Moon within eight days; it also captured stunning photographs of the Moon and the Earth together.
The lunar orbiter re-entered the Earth 6:13 a.m. of Nov. 1, accelerating at nearly 11.2 kilometers per second.
An ion sheath, which cut off communication between the orbiter and ground command, was generated when the orbiter experienced intense pressure during its descent.
According to Beijing Aerospace Command and Control Center chief engineer Zhou Jianliang, the orbiter was built to "bounce" off the atmosphere's edge before re-entering the Earth's atmosphere. The method reduces the orbiter's "braking distance," comparable to stones skipping through water.
"Really, this is like braking a car, the faster you drive, the longer the distance you need to bring the car to a complete stop," said the chief engineer.
Considering that the orbiter must penetrate the atmosphere at an extremely precise and specific angle, the craft's "bounce" was one of the hardest and deciding moments of the mission. If the craft shifted even just by 0.2 degrees out of the equation, the mission would have been a failure.
The successful lunar test mission garnered lots of data and experience for future space missions, according to vice director Wu Yanhua of China's State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense.
The lunar orbiter's eight-day mission was an experimental run for the final step of China's three-step lunar program.
The lunar orbiter "Xiaofei" obtained data for the future mission of the Chang'e 5 to the Moon.
