China launches relay satellite to support upcoming moon missions

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BEIJING: China launched a satellite today that will act as a communications bridge between ground operations on Earth and an upcoming mission on the far side of the moon, marking a new phase in the country’s long-term lunar exploration programme.

A Long March 8 rocket carrying the 1.2-metric tonne Queqiao-2, named after a mythological bridge made of magpies, and two miniature satellites, Tiandu-1 and Tiandu-2, blasted off from the southern island province of Hainan, state media reported.The moon’s near side always faces Earth. That means data transfers from the far side are impossible as there is no direct line of sight.

By 2040, Queqiao-2 will be part of a constellation of relay satellites serving as a communications bridge for crewed lunar missions and exploration on other planets like Mars and Venus.The Tiandu-1 and Tiandu-2 miniature satellites will conduct tests for the construction of a constellation. Queqiao-2’s orbit will be highly elliptical, reaching as high as 8,600km above its surface and enabling a communication link between Earth and the moon for more than eight hours, wrote its designer Zhang Lihua in a 2021 article in the journal Space: Science & Technology.

 

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