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Mission record

Queqiao

Also known as Magpie Bridge

Peoples Republic of China · Launched

Explore trajectory

Active · Active

A Chinese relay satellite placed in a halo orbit beyond the Moon so that a lander on the far side could keep in contact with Earth.

Destinations
Launch vehicle
Long March 4C
Launch site
Xichang Satellite Launch Center
Countries
Peoples Republic of China
Mission types
Other

Chronology

Mission timeline

  1. Launch

    Queqiao launched, with Longjiang 1 and Longjiang 2 as secondary payloads

    Xinhua reports 05:28 Beijing Time on May 21; converting from UTC+08:00 gives May 20 at 21:28 UTC. CNSA confirms Longjiang-1 and Longjiang-2 shared Queqiao's launch. Their individual deployment times remain separate and unresolved.

    Earth

  2. Orbit insertion

    Queqiao entered its operational Earth–Moon L2 halo orbit

  3. Milestone

    The NCLE team reported that its three antennas had partially deployed

    Announcement date; the exact deployment times were not stated. Later motor-angle measurements give unequal antenna lengths of 4.13, 2.17 and 2.85 m.

Mission architecture

Vehicles

  • Queqiao · Spacecraft

    Destinations: Moon

Trajectory record

Time-dependent navigation trajectory

Source states place the model at the selected time. Reconstructed flight, estimates, predictions and historical mission plans are identified by interval; gaps remain visible.

J2000 · Sun-centered display · positions interpolated between source states

Coverage: May 22, 2018 to May 22, 2018

Source records and sampling assumptions are retained with the repository data. Model attitude and surface appearance are illustrative.

  • Queqiao relay spacecraft: Project Pluto optical-fit Queqiao outbound transfer, 22 May 2018; lunar flyby and later L2 orbit uncovered. · May 22, 2018 to May 22, 2018

Provenance

Sources

Each source is listed once and labeled with the mission, event, trajectory, or destination/body context it supports.

Data verified through October 11, 2026