China's lunar test spacecraft takes incredible picture of Earth and Moon together

China’s lunar test spacecraft takes incredible picture of Earth and moon together
A unique view of the Moon and distant Earth from China’s Chang’e-5 T1 lunar test flight. Credit: Xinhua News and UnmannedSpaceflight.com

The Chinese lunar test mission Chang'e 5T1 has sent back some amazing and unique views of the Moon's far side, with the Earth joining in for a cameo in the image above. According to the crew at UnmannedSpaceflight.com the images were taken with the spacecraft's solar array monitoring camera.

Add this marvelous shot to previous views of the Earth and Moon together.

The mission launched on October 23 and is taking an eight-day roundtrip flight around the Moon and is now journeying back to Earth. The mission is a test run for Chang'e-5, China's fourth lunar probe that aims to gather samples from the Moon's surface, currently set for 2017. Chang'e 5T1 will return to Earth on October 31.

The test flight orbit had a perigee of 209 kilometers and reached an apogee of about 380,000 kilometers, swinging halfway around the Moon, but did not enter .

  • China’s lunar test spacecraft takes incredible picture of Earth and moon together
    A closeup of Mare Marginis, a lunar sea that lies on the very edge of the lunar nearside. Credit: Xinhua News, via UnmannedSpacefight.com.
  • China’s lunar test spacecraft takes incredible picture of Earth and moon together
    A view of Earth on October 24, 2014, from the Chinese Chang’e-5 T1 spacecraft. Credit: Xinhua News, via UnmannedSpaceflight.com

Source: Universe Today

Citation: China's lunar test spacecraft takes incredible picture of Earth and Moon together (2014, October 29) retrieved 19 March 2024 from https://phys.org/news/2014-10-china-lunar-spacecraft-incredible-picture.html
This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.

Explore further

China launches first mission to moon and back

0 shares

Feedback to editors