China has successfully created the world’s first three-satellite constellation positioned in the distant retrograde orbit (DRO) of the Earth-moon region, according to information from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).
The breakthrough, which includes stable inter-satellite measurement and communication links spanning over 1 million kilometers, represents a major step forward in China’s capabilities for lunar exploration and development of cislunar space.
The innovative satellite formation consists of three units designated DRO-A, DRO-B, and DRO-L. The first two satellites were launched in March 2024 and entered their mission orbits by mid-July, while DRO-L was deployed in February 2024 into a sun-synchronous orbit. By August 2024, all three had successfully formed the planned constellation.
One of the most notable innovations of the mission is its approach to fuel consumption. The scientific team developed a method that trades longer flight time for substantially increased payload capacity, allowing the satellites to complete Earth-moon transfer using only one-fifth of the fuel required by traditional methods. This represents the world’s first successful low-energy insertion into a distant retrograde orbit.
“It’s like turning a traditional ground station into a satellite and placing it in a low-Earth orbit,” Wang Wenbin, a researcher at CSU, said, as reported by Global Times.
“This opens a new technical pathway for China’s future cislunar and deep space exploration. It also provides an efficient solution for orbit determination, navigation, and timing across various cislunar orbits, supporting the future expansion of large-scale commercial activity in cislunar space.”
The Earth-moon region, which extends up to 2 million kilometers from Earth, offers a volume more than a thousand times larger than Earth’s orbital space. CAS initiated research in this domain in 2017, launching the pilot project in 2022 with aims to explore the unique characteristics and applications of the distant retrograde orbit.
The constellation has already yielded scientific dividends, supporting astrophysical research including gamma-ray burst detection and testing new technologies such as atomic clocks in space.
According to researchers, the satellite system will support China’s future lunar exploration missions by providing space-based measurements for rapid orbit determination and autonomous navigation services. The constellation could also supply high-precision time signals for lunar surface facilities and establish communication links with lunar exploration spacecraft.
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