China's experimental lunar spacecraft which was launched on Friday, has entered the moon's orbit as part of its week-long mission. The test flight is a precursor for a later three-stage mission that will bring back lunar samples to earth. According to the Chief Engineer at Beijing Aerospace control center, flight planners are working to ensure the orbiter stays on its course.

"After successfully launching the orbiter, we have made two flight path corrections to ensure that the test orbiter will be at the accurate re-entry point to earth. We will also need to ensure it is at a certain speed at that point so it can return to earth successfully. Now we can see these changes are within the flight path we've designed," said Zhou Jianliang, chief engineer of Beijing Aerospace Control Center.

The orbiter was launched on a long March-3C rocket from Xichang Launch Center in Southwest China's Sichuan Province. The eight-day program is a test run for a 2017 mission that aims to send Chinese landers to the moon, collect samples and data and return to earth.

The orbiter entered the Moon's gravitational sphere of influence at sixty-thousand kilometers from the lunar surface at noon Monday. It is expected to remain there for the next 32 hours before drawing closer to the moon.

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