Beijing, Feb 14 (IANS) China's second lunar probe, Chang'e-2, has traveled more than 70 million km into deep space in good condition, so far the longest voyage of any Chinese spacecraft, a senior engineer said Friday.
Chang'e-2 was launched Oct 1, 2010, to verify crucial technologies for Chang'e-3, the country's third lunar carrying a moon rover that was launched Dec 2, 2013.
It set off from its moon orbit for outer space in June 2011 after finishing all of its tasks.
Chang'e-2 is expected to travel as far as 300 million km from the earth, after which it will return to perigee of about 7 million km from the earth around 2029, Xinhua reported citing Zhou Jianliang, chief engineer of the Beijing Aerospace Control Centre.
The probe will reach 100 million km from earth in July this year.
The control centre has made many breakthroughs in fuel use and orbital decay technologies, which will boost China's future deep space exploration, Zhou said.
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