China set for first moon landing

The Chang’e-3 rocket carrying the Jade Rabbit rover blasts off, from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in the southwest province of Sichuan, China, on December 2.

• A Chinese spacecraft, Chang’e-3, is due to land on the moon this weekend


• Chang’e-3 will release a moon rover to collect soil samples and study the lunar surface


• The solar-powered robot contains a telescope and ultraviolet camera


• China is one of three countries to make a soft-landing on the moon

Hong Kong (CNN) — China’s first lunar rover is expected to land on the moon on Saturday, less than two weeks after it blasted off from Earth, according to Chinese media reports.

The landing will make China one of only three nations — after the United States and the former Soviet Union — to “soft-land” on the moon’s surface, and the first to do so in more than three decades.

Chang’e-3, the unmanned spacecraft carrying the rover, is due to touch down on a lava plain named Sinus Iridum, or Bay of Rainbows, shortly after 3 p.m. GMT (10 a.m. ET) on December 14, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency.

On landing, Chang’e-3 will release Jade Rabbit (called Yutu in Chinese) — a six-wheeled lunar rover equipped with at least four cameras and two mechanical legs that can dig up soil samples to a depth of 30 meters. The solar-powered rover will patrol the moon’s surface, studying the structure of the lunar crust as well as soil and rocks, for at least three months.

China launches first mission to the moon

Teaching class from a space lab

The robot’s name was decided by a public online poll and comes from a Chinese myth about the pet white rabbit of a goddess, Chang’e, who is said to live on the moon.

Incoming Search Terms:
China set for first moon landing
China, first, landing, moon