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China’s Chang’e 4 spacecraft to try historic landing on far side of moon ‘between January 1 and 3’

Printable version / Version imprimable

By William Zheng

South China Morning Post—China’s space agency said its control centre in Beijing would choose a suitable time to try the landing, but the Smithsonian Institution, the American museums and research centres group, reported that the craft was expected to set down on the Von Kármán crater landing point between January 1 and 3.

The moon lander was launched at the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in southern China on December 8 on a Long March 3B rocket and entered lunar orbit four days later.

The far side of the moon – 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.To continue ...

For more updates:

China’s Chang’e-4 mission to the far side of the Moon

May 19, 2018:
’China’s Lunar Program is Breaking New Ground,’ is the latest article written by space writer, Marsha Freeman.

Marsha will detail some of the ground breaking developments in the Chinese space program, Including a small Chinese satellite named Queqiao, scheduled for launch on May 21, which will play a critical role in the world’s first landing of an unmanned spacecraft, Chang’e 4, on the far side of the Moon.