At 18:59:57, October 1, 2010, Long March 3C rocket carrying Chang'e-2 unmanned lunar probe lifted off from the launch pad at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center. As a long-term partner of China’s space exploration program, SINOPEC Lubricant congratulates the success of launching of Chang'e-2.

Compared with Chang’e 1, Chang’e 2 not only involves updated technology, higher difficulty and more complicated system; but stricter requirements on the relevant supporting systems such as remote sensing, communication, lubrication, etc. It’s time flying to the moon is shortened to 120 hours, dramatically increasing the speed, and the requirements on lubrications also increased by times. Moreover, the lubricating oil should be of excellent viscosity-temperature characteristics, high-temperature stability and low-temperature fluidity under a condition of more than 300ºC of temperate difference. In addition, the high temperature and strong oxidizing environment in the launching process require extremely strong antioxidant properties of the lubricating oil.

SINOPEC provides the aerospace lubricating oil and grease of anti-strong chemical medium, resistance to ultra high and low temperature and ultra-low volatilization for Chang’e 2, which not only provides guaranty for the lubrication of core parts of satellites, but also is used for the sealing of various parts and the leakage detection of various types of electronic components. For instance, one of the important task for the space exploration of Chang’e 2 is to carry out high-resolution imaging test for the selection of landing zone for Chang’e 3. To this end, the precision of CCD camera carried by Chang’e 2 is greatly enhanced. The special lubricating oil provided by SINOPEC for the CCD cameras has ultra-low volatilization under the high vacuum conditions, which not only provides sufficient lubrication for the imaging equipments, but also can avoid the image distortion of camera caused by the volatile oil, ensuring the clarity of images.