Chang'e 1, following the instructions of the Beijing Aerospace Control Center (BACC), started the second braking at 11:21am and entered a 3.5-hour orbit with a perilune of around 200 km and an apolune of 1,700 km at around 11:35am after completing the braking.

The probe is expected to brake for the third time at around 8:00am on Nov. 7, which will further slow down its speed to 1.59 km per second to put it on a 127-minute round polar circular orbit.

The round orbit is also the probe's final destination where it is supposed to start "working" formally.

Before the second braking, Chang'e 1 was traveling along a 12-hour elliptical moon orbit, with a perilune of about 210 km and an apolune of about 8,600 km.

Chang'e 1 successfully completed its first braking and entered the moon's orbit at around 11:37am yesterday, which made it become a "real" circumlunar satellite.

The probe, named after a legendary Chinese goddess who flew to the moon, blasted off on a Long March 3A carrier rocket on Oct. 24 from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwestern Sichuan Province.