Repurposing lunar missions to enable deep space exploration

The Chang’e 6 spacecraft stack, with the lander and orbiter module prominently visible. Image: CNSA

The Chang’e 6 orbiter module, which enabled China to bring valuable farside lunar samples to Earth a few months ago, has been detected at the second Sun-Earth Lagrangian Point (L2) as of September 9 by enthusiastic spacecraft tracker Scott Tilley. On June 25 after the orbiter module released Chang’e 6’s sample capsule for atmospheric reentry on Earth, CNSA commanded the orbiter module to steer away from our planet and subsequently maneuvered it into a trajectory that has now placed it in the Earth-Sun L2 region. Here the Chang’e 6 orbiter module will presumably test operations for China’s upcoming exoplanet hunting telescope called Earth 2.0. This region of space is currently host to flagship astronomy missions by other space agencies such as the NASA-led JWST and ESA Gaia.

While China remains characteristically mum about official Chang’e 6 updates, the development fits the long-followed trend by CNSA of repurposing Chang’e spacecraft after their primary Moon missions have been accomplished. In fact, the first lunar craft to visit Sun-Earth L2 is China’s Chang’e 2 orbiter. Later on, CNSA also made the spacecraft fly past asteroid 4179 Toutatis at a close distance of 3.2 kilometers. Chang’e 2 thus enabled China to test its communications, tracking, and maneuvering abilities for farther, deep space missions.