It’s the first time a spacecraft has landed on the far side of the moon. Image via Loren Roberts for The Planetary Society.īottom line: China’s Chang’e-4 spacecraft set down on the moon’s far side on January 3, 2019, at 02:26 UTC. The Queqiao relay satellite also brought along two SmallSats named Longjiang-1 and 2 bound for lunar orbit. To solve that problem, China launched the Queqiao relay satellite in May 2018. since the far side of the moon never faces Earth, missions there require a relay satellite. It has been a fun day, commenting an American mission ( #MU69flyby) on Chinese social media and then tweeting a Chinese mission here.Ĭhang’e-4 mission profile. #ChangE4's rover may descend around 1030 UT (Jan 3) but it's bedtime now… good night folks. 1O9MGZAn5yĬheeky #ChangE4 descent & touchdown footage from the corner of the big screen at Beijing Aerospace Command and Control Centre. The Chinese Chang’e Moon lander touched down in the Von Karman crater in the large South Pole-Aitken Basin on the lunar farside, an area that just had sunrise and is starting a two-week-long lunar day. It’s a space feat no nation has accomplished until now: China’s Chang’e-4 spacecraft has successfully landed on the far side of the Moon! /zhn8zS2A5I At this writing, there’s no word that the rover has been deployed, but that’s expected soon. The spacecraft is a combination lander-rover. Chinese scientists hope to learn more about the early history of our moon (and by extension the Earth and rest of the solar system) by studying this region via Chang’e-4. So it’s an interesting region geologically. Scientists say Chang’e-4’s landing site is an area where an ancient impact by space debris pounded the moon long ago, possibly exposing some of the lunar mantle, the layer beneath its crust. of the content of magic minerals in surface. Chang’e-4 successfully de-orbited and landed. about the nature of the lower crustal or upper mantle rocks possibly exposed. It entered lunar orbit four days later, where mission controllers spent 22 days testing the spacecraft’s systems, waiting for the sun to rise at the landing site. Jason Davis at the Planetary Society wrote:Ĭhang’e-4 itself launched on December 8, 2018. The spacecraft landed in Von Kármán crater, located on the lunar far side within the South Pole-Aitken basin. East Coast) – China’s Chang’e-4 spacecraft successfully landed on the moon’s far side.īest New Year’s gift ever! EarthSky moon calendar for 2019Ĭhinese state media announced the event. Last night, according to clocks in the Americas – January 3, 2019, at 02:26 UTC (10:26 a.m.
More space history this week, besides the smallest space object ever orbited, and the most distant object yet visited.
Simulation of lunar far side today, via Alan Dyer ( on Twitter). In fact, Chang’e-4 mission controllers waited for sunrise over this region to set the lander down. No, the far side of the moon does not always stay dark. The Chinese Chang’e-4 moon lander touched down in the Von Kármán crater on the moon’s far side.
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