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Chang’e 4 launches China’s bid to be first on dark side of the moon
- Lunar lander and rover spacecraft blasts off on Saturday in challenging mission to explore moon’s lesser-known far side
- Success would significantly boost the standing of the Chinese space programme
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A rocket carrying China’s latest lunar lander and rover spacecraft, Chang’e 4, blasted off at about 2.23am local time on Saturday from Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in southern China, in humankind’s first attempt to land on the far side of the moon.
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An unofficial live stream recording the launch and viewable on Chinese social media, showed the Long March 3B rocket lifting off from the launch pad with a stunning trail of flame lighting up the early morning sky. Chinese state television did not broadcast the launch.
The craft is expected to land sometime between January 1 and 3 after a five-day cruise to the Moon and insertion into lunar orbit, the US’ Smithsonian Institution, a group of museums and research centres, reported on its websites. The spacecraft would make a few course corrections in preparation for landing at Von Kármán crater, the Smithsonian said.
China's state Xinhua news agency confirmed on Twitter that China had launched the lunar probe in the early hours of Saturday. It's expected to make first-ever soft landing on the far side of the moon, it said.
The far side, also known as the dark side because it faces away from Earth, remains comparatively unknown, with a different composition from sites on the near side, where previous missions have landed.
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