Chang'e probe moves to within 15km of lunar surface

The lunar probe Chang'e-3 has shifted its orbit, moving closer to the moon ready for its landing scheduled on Saturday, state media reported.

The craft changed from a circular to an elliptical orbit, which took its distance to the lunar surface from 100 kilometres to as little as 15 kilometres, Xinhua said. The manoeuvre was conducted when Chang'e-3 was on the dark side of the moon and could not be seen directly from earth.

The probe fired its thrusters automatically and when it reemerged on the radar of Beijing's flight control it was flying precisely on the new elliptical orbit as programmed.

The country's space authorities have also revealed more information about the devices that will be critical to a successful landing on the lunar surface.

Wu Ji , chief payload scientist, told Xinhua a landing camera would be activated when the probe was about two kilometres above the moon to determine the best spot for its descent.

It will also beam back to earth the images of the first landing on a celestial body by a Chinese spacecraft.

"Though the landing camera will work only a few minutes and take only dozens of images, these will be very important to the study of the lunar landscape and route planning for the rover," he said.