China became the third nation to successfully soft land equipment on the Earth's Moon a few hours ago.
China on Saturday successfully carried out the world's first soft landing of a space probe on the moon in nearly four decades, state media said, the next stage in an ambitious space program that aims to eventually put a Chinese astronaut on the moon.
The unmanned Chang'e 3 lander, named after a mythical Chinese goddess of the moon, touched down on Earth's nearest neighbor following a 12-minute landing process.
The probe carried a six-wheeled moon rover called "Yutu," or "Jade Rabbit," the goddess' pet.
The rover is scheduled to separate from the lander eight hours from landing. It took thirteen days for the craft to make it from takeoff on Earth to landing on the Moon.
Bucking the latest trends toward "selfies"
The probe and the rover are expected to photograph each other tomorrow.
I haven't found anything to indicate any kind of livestream will be available.
8:43 AM PT: Here is more technical detail.
The lunar probe began to carry out soft-landing on the moon at 9 p.m. Saturday and touched down in Sinus Iridum, or the Bay of Rainbows, 11 minutes later, according to Beijing Aerospace Control Center.
During the process, the probe decelerated from 15 km above the moon, stayed hovering at 100 meters from the lunar surface to use sensors to assess the landing area to avoid obstacles and locate the final landing spot, and descended slowly onto the surface.
The success made China the third country, after the United States and the Soviet Union, to soft-land on the moon.
Compared to those other two countries, which have successfully conducted 13 soft-landings on the moon, China's soft-landing mission designed the suspension and obstacle-avoiding phases to survey the landing area much more precisely through fitted detectors, scientists said.
The probe's soft-landing is the most difficult task during the mission, said Wu Weiren, the lunar program's chief designer.
Chang'e-3 relied on auto-control for descent, range and velocity measurements, finding the proper landing point, and free-falling.
The probe is equipped with shock absorbers in its four "legs" to cushion the impact of the landing, making Chang'e-3 the first Chinese spacecraft with "legs."
8:45 AM PT:
5:29 PM PT: