After flying about 112 hours towards the moon, a 3000 N engine on the probe ignited when it was 400 km away from the surface of the moon at 8:58 p.m. on January 28 and shut down after about 17 minutes. The probe performed the braking without incident andentered the lunar orbit successfully, according to the real-time monitoring data.

The braking maneuver is one of the key orbital control measures for any lunar probe mission. It is designed to slow the probe while it is approaching the moon in a high speed and to ensure it can be captured by the lunar gravitational field instead of flying too fast to miss the celestial body.

As entering the moon-Earth transfer orbit, Chang'e-5 probe carried out two course corrections, all meeting planned targets. Afterward, it will adjust the altitude and inclination of its orbit around the moon. When the time is appropriate, the lander-ascender combination will separate from the orbiter-returner combination, implement a soft landing on the near side of the moon, and carry out automatic sampling as planned.

Source: WeChat official accounts of China National Space Administration and China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation