Mission record
Tiandu-1
Also known as Tiandu 1
China National Space Administration · Launched
Explore trajectoryActive · Active
China's Tiandu-1 communication and navigation technology test satellite entered lunar orbit and completed a 3:1 Earth-Moon resonant-orbit maneuver.
- Destinations
- Launch vehicle
- Long March 8
- Launch site
- Wenchang Space Launch Site
- Countries
- China
- Mission types
- Other
Chronology
Mission timeline
Launch
Tiandu-1 launched on a Long March 8 from Wenchang Space Launch Site
HIT gives shared Long March8 launch at March20 08:31:28 China standard time, converted to UTC.
EarthOrbit insertion
Tiandu-1 completed near-moon braking and entered a lunar orbit
CNSA reports completion of the attached Tiandu pair’s near-Moon braking at March25 01:43 China standard time (UTC+08:00).
MoonDeployment
Tiandu1 and Tiandu2 separated in lunar orbit
HIT reports April3 06:26 in the China-time context; converted to UTC with minute resolution.
Milestone
The Tiandu satellites began formation flight at roughly200km separation
A relative range alone does not supply independent six-dimensional states.
Mission architecture
Vehicles
Tiandu-1 · 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.
Source records and sampling assumptions are retained with the repository data. Model attitude and surface appearance are illustrative.
- Tiandu-1: Project Pluto optical-fit attached-pair transfer, 21–22 March 2024, and separate Tiandu-1 May 2025 estimate; gaps uncovered. · March 21, 2024 to May 5, 2025
Provenance
Sources
Each source is listed once and labeled with the mission, event, trajectory, or destination/body context it supports.
Data verified through October 12, 2026
- China launches new relay satellite for Earth-Moon communications - CNSA — CNSAOther · Supports: mission claims
- Spectacular lift-off - Global Times — OTHEROther · Supports: mission claims
- China's Queqiao-2 relay satellite enters orbit around the moon - The State Council of the People's Republic of China — OTHEROther · Supports: mission claims
- Chinese lunar probe shifts to complex orbit in world first - The State Council of the People's Republic of China — OTHEROther · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- China's Tiandu satellites take Earth-Moon transmissions and routing tests - SpaceChina — OTHEROther · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- China launches new relay satellite for Earth-Moon communications - CNSA — CNSAOther · Supports: mission claims
- CNSA: Queqiao-2 braking start and Tiandu pair capture completion — CNSATechnical document · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- HIT: Original Tiandu spacecraft design, launch clock and planned transfer — OTHERTechnical document · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- HIT: Tiandu pair separation, original configuration drawings and lunar flight — OTHERTechnical document · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- Chen et al.: Implementation of two-way laser ranging to Tiandu-1, original observations and separate simulation — OTHERTechnical document · Supports: mission claims
- Tiandu-1 Project Pluto optical orbit fit — OTHERArchive · Supports: mission claims
- Project Pluto QQ-2C attached Tiandu optical fit — OTHERArchive · Supports: mission claims
- DE421 lunar mean-Earth and principal-axes frame specification — NAIFTechnical document · Supports: destination/body context
- DE440 lunar mean-Earth and principal-axes frame specification — NAIFSpice · Supports: destination/body context
- IAU rotational elements and body radii (PCK 00011) — NAIFSpice · Supports: destination/body context
- LOLA global lunar height maps, LDEM_4 V3 original PDS source label — NASATechnical document · Supports: destination/body context
- LOLA 2023 south-polar elevation, uncertainty and effective-resolution maps — NASATechnical document · Supports: destination/body context
- Blue Ghost Lunar Lander Seen From Above: LROC site and terrain context — NASATechnical document · Supports: destination/body context
- Moon Facts — NASAOther · Supports: destination/body context
- SLDEM2015 Blue Ghost region: original PDS elevation-grid label — NASATechnical document · Supports: destination/body context
- JPL Solar System Dynamics Astrodynamic Parameters — JPLOther · Supports: destination/body context
- Planet Sizes and Locations in Our Solar System — NASAOther · Supports: destination/body context