Chang'e-1, the country's first moon orbiter, arrived at its furthest point from Earth - some 120,000 km - at 5:40 PM yesterday on a new orbit, setting a distance record for China's space industry.

"The previous record holder was the satellite Tance-1, or Exploration-1, which was launched in 2003. Its apogee (maximum distance from earth) was nearly 80,000 km," Hao Xifan, deputy head of China's Lunar Exploration Project office, said.

The orbiter's ultraviolet image sensors began working at around 7 am yesterday, gathering information on both Earth and moon.

This flight marks the first time an ultraviolet image sensor has been activated on a satellite, though a few countries have tested them on the ground, Wang Yejun, chief engineer with the Beijing Aerospace Control Center, said.

Chang'e-1 lifted off from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan Province last Wednesday. It successfully transferred to a 48-hour orbit with an apogee of 120,000 km, up from its former 70,000 km, at 6:01 pm on Monday.

The lunar probe will stay on that orbit until later this afternoon, when it is expected to enter the Earth-moon transfer orbit and its seventh time circling Earth, Hao said.

He said he was concerned about the orbit transfer, a critical point that may determine whether the satellite can fly to the moon successfully, since there is only one orbit entry point.

Hao said Chang'e-1 is mankind's 119th lunar probe since 1958. Just 59 have succeeded in their missions. Of these, only the European Space Agency succeeded in its first moon-orbiting mission.

(China Daily October 31, 2007)