BEIJING, Nov. 7 (Xinhua) -- China's first lunar probe, Chang'e-1, completed its around two-million-km flying journey to the moon successfully on Wednesday morning and entered its working orbit.

The probe, following instructions of the Beijing Aerospace Control Center (BACC), started its third braking at 8:24 a.m. and entered a 127-minute round polar circular orbit at around 8:35 a.m. after completing the braking.

The TV pictures showed gray-haired Luan Enjie, chief commander of China's lunar probe project, and also silver-haired Sun Jiadong, chief designer of the project, wearing smiles and holding hands together tightly.

"It puts a successful end to the probe's long flight to the moon," Luan said.

"The satellite entered the designed working orbit just in time and very accurately today," said Sun, who has joined hands with Luan for more than a decade to develop, test and carry out the country's ambitious lunar probe project.

"The probe will travel along the orbit at a stable altitude of 200 km above the moon's surface. In each circle, it will always pass the two polars," said Wang Yejun, chief engineer of the Beijing Aerospace Control Center (BACC).

The round orbit is also the final destination of the probe, where it is supposed to start carrying out all the planned scientific exploration tasks.

"The probe's precise entry into the orbit has laid a solid foundation for its future work, and we are confident that Chang'e-1 will continue to fulfill the aims step by step," said MaXinrui, general manager of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASTC) in charge of the rocket and satellite systems.

The 2,350-kg satellite carried eight probing facilities, including a stereo camera and interferometer, an imager and gamma/x-ray spectrometer, a laser altimeter, a microwave detector, a high energy solar particle detector and a low energy ion detector.

"Currently, all the facilities are in very good conditions. Next, scientists need to maintain smooth communications between the ground and the satellite and keep it in the orbit," said ZhangHe, director of the CASTC's space technology research institute.

Chang'e-1 is expected to fulfill four scientific objectives, including a three-dimensional survey of the Moon's surface, analysis of the abundance and distribution of elements on lunar surface, an investigation of the characteristics of lunar regolith and the powdery soil layer on the surface, and an exploration of the circumstance between the earth and the moon.

"One of its major tasks is to probe the mineral elements on the moon, especially those not existent on the earth," Zhang said.

"The lunar regolith is abundant in helium-3, a clean fuel that may support the earth's energy demands for more than a century," she said, admitting that there is still a long way to go from the probing of the element to its actual use.

It was originally designed to stay on the orbit for one year, but a researcher estimated that fuel saved by smooth operations and precise maneuvers may prolong its life span.

Chang'e-1, named after a legendary Chinese goddess who flew to the moon, blasted off on a Long March 3A carrier rocket on Oct. 24 from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwestern Sichuan Province.