Chinese spacecraft flies past asteroid Toutatis
Posted: Sun, Dec 16, 2012, 11:54 AM ET (1654 GMT)
A Chinese spacecraft originally launched to orbit the Moon flew past and successfully returned images of the near Earth asteroid Toutatis this week. Chang'e-2 passed by Toutatis on December 13, with its closest approach at a distance of only 3.2 kilometers at 3:30 am EST (0830 GMT, 4:30 pm Beijing time) that day. The spacecraft returned several images of the asteroid from the flyby. China launched Chang'e-2 in October 2010 as a lunar orbiter, and it studied the Moon from orbit until June 2011, when it departed orbit to travel to the Earth-Sun L2 Lagrange point, 1.5 million kilometers from Earth, making it the first Chinese spacecraft to travel beyond the vicinity of the Moon. The spacecraft left L2 earlier this year to make a flyby of Toutatis.
A Chinese spacecraft originally launched to orbit the Moon flew past and successfully returned images of the near Earth asteroid Toutatis this week. Chang'e-2 passed by Toutatis on December 13, with its closest approach at a distance of only 3.2 kilometers at 3:30 am EST (0830 GMT, 4:30 pm Beijing time) that day. The spacecraft returned several images of the asteroid from the flyby. China launched Chang'e-2 in October 2010 as a lunar orbiter, and it studied the Moon from orbit until June 2011, when it departed orbit to travel to the Earth-Sun L2 Lagrange point, 1.5 million kilometers from Earth, making it the first Chinese spacecraft to travel beyond the vicinity of the Moon. The spacecraft left L2 earlier this year to make a flyby of Toutatis.
Related Links:
| <<previous article | next article>> |
|
news in brief
|
|
Apex becomes billion-dollar company with $200 million Series D round
Posted: Sun, Sep 14 4:09 AM ET (0809 GMT) |
|
news links
|
|
Thursday, September 18
Russia developing Starlink rival at 'rapid pace,' space chief says
Reuters — 1:56 am ET (0556 GMT) Rocket Lab Looks To Raise $750M In Share Sale
Aviation Week — 1:53 am ET (0553 GMT) Blue Origin hires Christopher Fuller as marketing and comms head
PRWeek — 1:52 am ET (0552 GMT) Weather Causes SpaceX Team to Scrub Wednesday’s Liftoff Attempt From VSFB
Noozhawk — 1:50 am ET (0550 GMT) Update: SpaceX Launch from Vandenberg Rescheduled Due to Weather
Santa Barbara (CA) Edhat — 1:50 am ET (0550 GMT) |
