Lyapunov orbits pass behind the Moon, restricting communication opportunities with Earth for long periods of time, and as such were not considered.

[3] On 14 June 2018, Queqiao finished its final adjustment burn and entered the mission orbit, about 65,000 kilometres (40,000 mi) from the Moon.

[3] In addition to its communication relay equipment, Queqiao carries the Netherlands-China Low Frequency Explorer (NCLE), a radio-astronomy experiment to detect faint radio signals from the early universe.

While Queqiao's primary mission will keep the instrument constantly in line of sight of the Earth, and expose it to radio interference from the primary communication relay hardware, the accumulated experience and data from NLCE will serve as a pathfinder for future deep space radio astronomy instruments.

[17] Queqiao is additionally fitted with a laser reflector developed by Sun Yat-sen University as a pilot study for the TianQin gravitational-wave observatory project.

[19] Developed at the Harbin Institute of Technology, the microsatellites were to fly in formation in a 300x3000 km orbit to perform ultra-long-wavelength astronomical interferometry.

Longjiang-2 was equipped with a micro-optical camera provided by King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology, returning color images of the Earth and the lunar surface.

The orbit gradually decayed due to gravitational perturbations with the microsatellite impacting the far side of the lunar surface at 14:20 UTC, 31 July 2019.

[20] China and Radboud University of Netherland collaborated on the Netherlands-China Low Frequency Explorer (NCLE), a radio-astronomy experiment.