Pakistan on Friday informed that its first lunar orbiter has sent the first pictures of the Sun and the Moon. The Pakistani orbiter was launched along with China's lunar mission. Pakistan's small satellite 'Icube Qamar' was launched as part of China's Chang'e 6 lunar mission.
The mission departed from China’s Hunan province on May 3. Maria Tariq, a spokeswoman for Suparco, Pakistan's national space agency, told Dawn that the China National Space Agency (CNSA) organised a ceremony to mark the success of the mission in which the photos were shown.
China handed over the photos to Pakistan's Ambassador
Maria Tariq said the photographs were officially handed over to Pakistan's Ambassador to China during a ceremony in Beijing. According to her, "On May 8, at 1:14 pm local time, the Pakistani CubeSat separated from the orbiter and after circling the lunar orbit for 12 hours, it successfully captured the first pictures." CNSA Said that Pakistan's Icube-Qamar successfully separated from Chang'e-6 and achieved further mission success.
Releasing the pictures, CNSA said that in the first image the sun appears as a bright object, while in the second picture half of the moon is seen shining. The third image shows the moon on the left and the sun on the right, CNSA said. 'iCube-Qamar' has been jointly developed by Islamabad Space Technology University and Shanghai University of China with two high-tech cameras installed in it to capture photographs of the lunar surface.
China's Chang'e 6 mission
China’s Chang'e-6 is the most complex robotic lunar mission to date and is a key milestone in Beijing's push to become a dominant space power. The duration for the Chinese mission is 53 days. It envisages landing on the far side of the moon and taking samples for further scientific study of the evolution of the moon. China's Chang'e 6 is largely seen as a race against the United States for space dominance. China has planned to land its astronauts by 2030 and set up a research base atlunar south pole.
(With PTI Inputs)
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