Chinese space officials are ready to flip Chang’e-1’s scientific instrument switch to the on position. The spacecraft has undergone a series of shakeouts since swinging into polar circular orbit around the Moon on November 7.

On Monday, the probe begins its year-long campaign of studying the Moon with a suite of devices, including a camera that is expected to relay its first image of the lunar landscape late this month. A recent report has indicated that first pictures are to be taken November 26.

Experts at the China National Space Administration (CNSA) feel that there’s enough fuel aboard Chang’e-1 that an extended mission — beyond the year of active duty — is likely.

The $187 million spacecraft was sent moonward on October 24.

The orbiter is one element of a CNSA plan that calls for landing a rover on the Moon in 2012, followed five years later by a hunter/gatherer rover involved in returning to Earth select lunar samples.

Meanwhile, news outlets in China are reporting progress in constructing that country’s fourth satellite launch facility - near Wenchang City on the southern Chinese island of Hainan.

The sprawling center — including a space science theme park — is to be sited near the equator. Its location, news accounts point out, would enable the lofting of geosynchronous satellites, place spacecraft into polar orbit, launch space stations, as well as toss probes into deep space.