Three maritime monitoring vessels have arrived at a designated area in the Pacific Ocean to track the journey of the Chang'e II satellite, China's second unmanned lunar probe.

Fei Jiabing, director of the China Satellite Maritime Tracking and Control Department, said, "In the last rehearsal, the software and hardware on the three vessels functioned well, and the data collection and calculation systems worked precisely."

A monitoring station in Xiamen, southeast Fujian Province, was also ready to monitor the launch. Fang Jinhua, chief engineer of the monitoring station, said all the staff were prepared and equipment tested.

Xiamen monitoring station is the last stop in the land-based monitoring relay, before the three monitoring vessels take over.

Xichang Satellite Launch Center (XSLC) announced Friday that Chang'e II was scheduled to blast off at 6:59:57 PM Friday from the center in southwest China's Sichuan Province.

The lunar probe will test key technologies and collect data for future landings of Chang'e III and Chang'e IV, and provide high-resolution photographs of the landing area.

Chang'e II was built as an alternative to Chang'e I, which was launched in October 2007 and maintained a 16-month lunar orbit. The series of Chang'e probes is named after a legendary Chinese moon goddess.

(Xinhua News Agency October 1, 2010)