China will validate a range of technologies with its second lunar probe, including the landing of a camera on the surface of the Moon and control of a spacecraft by X-band communications. The Chang’e 2 probe, built as a back-up for the 2007 spacecraft Chang’e 1 and inserted into the Chinese lunar program because it happened to be available, has already validated the first of six main technologies it was designed to demonstrate—direct injection onto a lunar-transfer path without first settling into an Earth orbit.

Japan is likely to decide by year-end whether to order Northrop Grumman RQ-4B Global Hawk surveillance aircraft that could later be upgraded to reinforce the country’s ballistic missile defenses.

BEIJING — Chinese mission controllers have braked the Chang’e 2 lunar probe to bring it into an initial orbit around the Moon, with the aim of reducing its velocity twice more to place the spacecraft on its operational track. One of the chief aims of the mission is to achieve an orbit of 100 km. (60 mi.) with a period of 118 min. The initial orbit lasts 12 hr.