Mission Summary
Chang’e 3 carried out the first soft landing on the Moon in nearly four decades, and it remains active on the surface today. Launched in December 2013, the most sophisticated Chinese lunar probe to that point, it set down a four-legged lander and the small Yutu rover to study the surface up close.
After entering lunar orbit, the spacecraft descended to a powered landing in Mare Imbrium on December 14, 2013, becoming the first craft to touch down softly on the Moon since the Soviet Luna 24 in 1976. Soon after landing it lowered Yutu to the surface, and the two photographed each other across the gray plain.
The lander carried cameras, an ultraviolet telescope, and an extreme-ultraviolet camera to observe both the Moon and the Earth’s plasmasphere, and it was built to operate for a year. It has far outlasted that design life: more than a decade later, Chang’e 3 is still working, among the longest-lived spacecraft ever to operate on the lunar surface.
Sources and notes can be found on the Sources page.
