Goals: The Chang'e 2 orbiter was China's second lunar mission. Expanding on the goals of the Chang'e 1 mission, it was a technical test satellite for future Chinese lunar missions. Its principal objectives are to return high resolution images of the lunar surface to aid in selection of a future landing site for another mission.

Accomplishments: The orbiter completed all of its assigned tasks at the moon, including photographing possible sites for a proposed future unmanned landing, according to China's State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence.

Although the orbiter was only supposed to remain in space for six months, the spacecraft had fuel reserves enough to send it from the moon to an orbit around Lagrangian point L2 about 1.5 million km away from Earth, where gravity from the sun and Earth balances the orbital motion of a satellite, and additional science operations.