The Yutu rover has now rolled onto the surface of the Moon from the Chang’e 3 lander.
Update: More from Emily Lakdawalla on the rover’s deployment: Six wheels on soil for Yutu! – The Planetary Society
CNSA / CCTV / Emily Lakdawalla
Chang’e 3 rover Yutu rolls onto the lunar surface
The Chinese Chang’e 3 spacecraft has landed successfully on the Moon: Live: China lands moon probe – China.org.cn Live
China’s lunar probe Chang’e 3 made a successful landing on the moon on Saturday night, Beijing Time, marking China’s first spacecraft to soft-land on the surface of an extraterrestrial body.
The first image transmitted by the downward-looking camera.
The Yutu (“Jade Rabbit”) rover will be deployed in a few hours.
Update: The landing occurred about an hour earlier than expected from press reports. Here is a video of an English Chinese TV broadcast at the time of the landing:
Update 2: This article and video describe the lander and rover in some detail: Crossover: 720 seconds of Chang´e-3 moon landing CCTV News – CNTV English
Update 3: Emily Lakdawalla at the Planetary Society has lots of good stuff about the event including the following sequence of images below that were sent during the landing: Chang’e 3 has successfully landed on the Moon! – The Planetary Society
CCTV
And here is a color image as well:
Image of the lunar surface from Chang’e 3 lander
The Chinese Chang’e 3 spacecraft is expected to land on the Moon on Saturday at 9:40 p.m. Beijing local time, 8:40 a.m. EST. There may be live coverage at CCTV News Live – P2P Live Streaming – English_CCTV.com.
Background info:
China’s lunar probe Chang’e 3 is expected to land on Sinus Iridum of the moon
in mid-December. [Xinhua]
More about the Chinese Chang’e 3 lunar spacecraft going into orbit around the Moon: Chinese probe arrives in lunar orbit for moon landing – Spaceflight Now.
See also the earlier post here.
The vehicle is expected to land on December 14th.
Here’s a discussion of China’s goals for its lunar program: Why is China targeting the moon — and should NASA as well? – Fox News.
The Chinese Chang’e 3 lunar lander and rover spacecraft has gone into orbit around the Moon. It is expected to land on December 14th.
This animation shows how the rover leaves the lander and explores the lunar surface: