When Chang'e 1 was launch, China thought about sending a probe to Mars. However lacking deep space tracking ability at that time, the Mars mission was not pursued.For the Lunar missions, coming Mars missions, and future deep space missions, China had built a deep space network to track and communicate with probes in distance, i.e. for the TT&C.
As reported, China had used its deep space network including the dishes in Kashi station and Jiamushi station to test track the Juno Jupiter probe between Oct 2016 to Aug 2017. This is passive listening to the Juno's signal to determine its Doppler frequency and hence its orbit.
The 66m dish in Jiamushi, Heilongjiang.
In Jun 11, 2015, the 66m dish in Jiamushi was used to track the New Horizons during its flyby of Pluto at 4.7 billion km away.
The Chinese deep space network again tracked the Cassini's burning descent into Saturn's atmosphere during its de-orbit in Sep 15, 2017.
China is currently expanding its deep space network to probe up to 100 AU by 2049, where 1 AU is about 150 million km, i.e. about 15 billion km away.
The Kashi station in Xinjiang is currently expanding with 4 new 35m dish forming an array that will vastly increase China's deep space probe capability.
A new 35m under construction at the Kashi station.
By the end of the century, China intended to extent the capability upto 1000 AU.
