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Chang'e 4
Spacecraft
A Chinese lunar lander and rover mission that made history in 2019 as the first spacecraft to successfully land on and explore the far side of the Moon.
Key Facts
organization | CNSA |
orbital regime | Inner System |
learn more | Wikipedia |
launched | 2018-12-07 |
launch mass | 3,780 kg |
Mission Timeline
Launched
December 7, 2018 at 18:23 UTC
Luna (The Moon)
Lander
Chang'e 4 became the first spacecraft to achieve a soft landing on the far side of the Moon on January 3, 2019, touching down in the Von Kármán crater and deploying the Yutu-2 rover to explore the lunar surface.
Related Spacecraft
Chang'e 1
Launched in 2007
Launched in 2007, Chang'e 1 became the first Chinese lunar orbiter, mapping the Moon's surface and chemical composition during its 16-month mission before being intentionally crashed into the lunar surface in March 2009.
Chang'e 2
Launched in 2010
Following its 2010 launch, Chang'e 2 mapped the Moon's surface in high resolution, flew by asteroid 4179 Toutatis, and became China's first spacecraft to reach the Sun-Earth Lagrange point L2.
Yutu-2
Launched in 2018
A robotic lunar rover that landed on the far side of the Moon in January 2019 as part of the Chang'e 4 mission, becoming the first spacecraft to make a soft landing on the lunar far side and continuing to operate while exploring the South Pole-Aitken Basin.
Chang'e 5
Launched in 2020
A robotic lunar probe that successfully landed on the Moon in December 2020, collected about 1.7 kilograms of lunar samples from Oceanus Procellarum, and returned them to Earth, marking the first lunar sample return since 1976.
Chang'e 6
Launched in 2024
A planned lunar mission slated for launch in 2024 that will attempt to collect and return samples from the far side of the Moon, marking the first-ever sample return from the lunar far side.
