THE NEW SPACE RACE: A Chinese spacecraft is testing out a new orbit around the moon. “The service module, which played a large part in delivering 1.731 kilograms of fresh lunar samples to Earth in December 2020, is now in a distant retrograde orbit (DRO) of the moon, according to amateur satellite trackers. China has not published an update on Chang’e-5’s activities since May 2021, when the China Lunar Exploration Program released images the spacecraft had taken from deep space. However amateur satellite tracker Scott Tilley and others, including Jean-Luc Milette and Edgar Kaiser, have been following Chang’e-5’s travels through space and provide evidence for the new lunar orbit following months of observations.”