Pakistan's satellite mission 'iCube Qamar' enters lunar orbit

islamabad: Pakistan's first satellite ‘iCube Qamar’, which traveled to space with China's space mission ‘Chang’e 6’ entered lunar orbit.

The Chinese News Agency quoted a statement from the China National Space Administration saying that the ‘Chang’e 6’ successfully entered the lunar orbit at 10:12am local time.

The report said that in-orbit testing of the satellite's systems will take a week, adding that the in-orbit testing of iCube Qamar's controllers, subsystems and protocols has begun.

It is pertinent to note that on May 3, Pakistani satellite iCube Qamar was launched from the Wencheng Space Center in Henan, China at 2:27pm, after which Pakistan became the sixth country to send a satellite into lunar orbit.

The world's first mission to retrieve samples from the far side of the Moon, the Pakistani satellite 'iCube Qamar' is equipped with two optical cameras used to take pictures of the Moon's surface.

Pakistan's satellite mission will orbit the moon for three to six months. With the help of the satellite, various images of the moon's surface will be taken, after which Pakistan will have its own satellite images of the moon for research.

The mission involves orbiting the moon, taking off, and returning while it tries to carry up to two kilogrammes of material.