Chang'E 2 launches in less than 24 hours, weather permitting

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla

2010/09/30 12:04 CDT

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Here are a few photos of Chang'E 2 meeting its launch vehicle in Xichang, which I got from this lovely slide show. It's a beautiful view of the spacecraft. I don't see any obvious lump or bump that could be a probe or impactor mounted on it -- but there is one face of the cube-shaped spacecraft (apart from its base, which is attached to the launch rocket) -- that is not shown in the photos. Maybe it's attached over there.

SINA.com

Chang'E 2 prepares for launch

The Chang'E 2 lunar orbiter meets its launch vehicle, preparing for an October 1 launch.

The People's Daily website appears to be doing a huge amount of live news and coverage in Chinese; there is a small amount of information available on their English-language website. CNTV has a more updated English-language website. The launch is supposed to happen on October 1 at 19:00 local time / 11:00 UTC / 04:00 my time -- that is, in fewer than 18 hours -- but some of the Google translated messages on the People's Daily website seem to indicate foul weather in the area. I'm not sure though.