Chang'e 4

Key facts

Mission & specifications

Mission

Chang'e 4 made history on 3 January 2019 as the first spacecraft ever to make a soft landing on the far side of the Moon — the hemisphere that permanently faces away from Earth and had never been touched by a lander. The far side poses a unique problem: with the body of the Moon blocking direct radio contact, a lander there cannot talk to Earth. China solved it by first placing a relay satellite, Queqiao, in a halo orbit beyond the Moon, from where it could see both the far side and the Earth and pass signals between them. Launched on 7 December 2018, Chang'e 4 set down in Von Kármán crater, within the vast and ancient South Pole–Aitken basin — one of the largest impact scars in the Solar System — and deployed the Yutu-2 rover. Yutu-2 went on to become the longest-lived lunar rover in history, still operating years later and probing the layered subsurface with radar. The mission even carried a small sealed biosphere in which a cotton seed briefly sprouted, the first plant grown on another world. By exploring terrain no spacecraft had ever visited, Chang'e 4 opened a genuinely new region of the Moon to close study.

1. 2018Launch toward the far sideLaunch

   Chang'e 4 departs for a landing no spacecraft had attempted, relayed by the Queqiao satellite.

2. 2019First far-side landingLanding

   Sets down in Von Kármán crater, in the ancient South Pole–Aitken basin.

3. 2019Yutu-2 rover deployedDeployment

   The rover begins exploring; it becomes the longest-lived lunar rover in history.

4. 2019A seed sprouts on the MoonMilestone

   A cotton seed in a sealed biosphere germinates briefly — the first plant grown on another world.

Images

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