China's Lunar Test Spacecraft Takes Incredible Picture of Earth and Moon Together

By Nancy Atkinson - October 28, 2014 at 12:49 PM UTC | Space Exploration
CE5T1_Moon_2.jpg

The Chinese lunar test mission Chang'e 5T1 has sent back some amazing and unique views of the Moon's far side, with the Earth joining in for a cameo in the image above. According to the crew at

UnmannedSpaceflight.com

the images were taken with the spacecraft's solar array monitoring camera.

Add this marvelous shot to

previous views

of the Earth and Moon together.

[caption id="attachment_115752" align="aligncenter" width="580"]

A closeup of Mare Marginis, a lunar sea that lies on the very edge of the lunar nearside. Credit: Xinhua News, via UnmannedSpacefight.com.[/caption]

The mission

launched on October 23

and is taking an eight-day roundtrip flight around the Moon and is now journeying back to Earth. The mission is a test run for Chang'e-5, China's fourth lunar probe that aims to gather samples from the Moon's surface, currently set for 2017. Chang'e 5T1 will return to Earth on October 31.

The test flight orbit had a perigee of 209 kilometers and reached an apogee of about 380,000 kilometers, swinging halfway around the Moon, but did not enter lunar orbit.

[caption id="attachment_115753" align="aligncenter" width="580"]

A view of Earth on October 24, 2014, from the Chinese Chang'e-5 T1 spacecraft. Credit: Xinhua News, via UnmannedSpaceflight.com.[/caption]

See original images at

Xinhua News

.

H/T: Cosmic_Penguin and Unmanned Spaceflight

.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com