By Staff Reporters

China launched a relay satellite into the lunar orbit on March 20, to pave the way for the country's prospective trailblazing expeditions to the moon.

The Queqiao 2, or Magpie Bridge 2, satellite was carried atop a Long March 8 carrier rocket that blasted off at the Wenchang Space Launch Center in south China's Hainan Province.

The launch is only the first step in this mission, as Queqiao 2 also needs to carry out a series of important actions such as a mid-course trajectory correction and a braking operation.

After it enters an elliptical frozen orbit around the moon, it also needs to conduct communication tests with the Chang'e 4 probe that is on the lunar surface and the Chang'e 6, which is waiting for launch at the Wenchang center. This will ensure that Queqiao 2 establishes a ground-to-moon relay communication link, according to Ge Ping, one of the senior officials at the China National Space Administration which oversees the lunar program.

Compared with Queqiao, the relay satellite of Chang'e 4 launched in 2018, Queqiao 2 has more technological innovations, stronger functions, more complex interfaces, higher degree of development, and a longer mission period. In addition, Queqiao 2 carries some scientific payloads and will carry out scientific exploration.

Stage 4 of the Chang'e lunar exploration project was approved for implementation in December 2021 and consists of four missions, Chang'e 4, Chang'e 6, Chang'e 7 and Chang'e 8. Launched in December 2018, Chang'e 4 achieved the world's first soft landing on the moon's far side. Chang'e 6 will be launched in the first half of 2024. Chang'e 7 and Chang'e 8 will build basic lunar scientific research stations and carry out lunar environmental exploration and other tasks.