“[1:45]The third engine has been ignited for the second time.”
Looks like all is well with the orbit they are in and are going for the Moon. Is Alice on board?
From spaceflightnow.com:
The Yutu rover, mounted on a stationary rocket-powered landing platform, will touch down on the moon Dec. 14. If it makes it, the Chinese mission will be the first spacecraft to achieve a soft landing on the moon since 1976.
The lunar landing mission is named Chang’e 3, the third Chinese lunar probe following a pair of orbiters launched in 2007 and 2010.
Packed with a ground-piercing radar, cameras, spectrometers and plutonium-powered heaters, the rover lifted off at 1730 GMT (12:30 p.m. EST) Sunday from the Xichang launching base in southern China’s Sichuan province. Launch occurred at 1:30 a.m. Beijing time Monday.
The 185-foot-tall Long March 3B rocket ignited its eight hydrazine-fueled first stage and booster engines and climbed away from its mountainous launch pad, shedding the liquid-fueled boosters and first stage a few minutes later.
A hydrazine-fueled second stage and hydrogen-fueled third stage were expected to propel the Chang’e 3 lander on a direct four-day trajectory to the moon, where it will brake into orbit Dec. 6.
I thought it said they were going for a stabilized
earth orbit of some weeks duration then go for
translunar.