After launching a pair of satellites last year that failed to reach the right orbit around the moon, China's Technology and Engineering Center for Space Utilization (CSU) came up with a novel tactic — using a gravity "slingshot" to get the satellites in the correct spot.
China launched the satellites, named DRO-A and DRO-B, in March 2024 atop a Long March-2C rocket, according to the state-run China Global Television Network (CGTN). They were supposed to go to distant retrograde orbit — the DRO in the pair's name — around the moon, to help provide navigation and tracking for spacecraft in Earth-moon space.
