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China’s Yutu lunar rover took this image of Change’3 lander.
Credit: NAOC/Chinese Academy of Sciences

China’s Moon exploration community has been saluting the anniversary of its Chang’e 3 lunar lander that touched down on December 14, 2013.

Chang’e 3 became the first spacecraft to make a soft touchdown on the Moon since the Soviet Union’s Luna 24 sample return mission in 1976. The instrument-carrying lander deployed the Yutu rover that carried out a suite of scientific measurements.

An impressive set of images from China’s Chang’e 3 mission to the Moon is available here:

http://moon.bao.ac.cn/multimedia/img2dce3.jsp

The site is supported by the Science and Applications Center for Moon and Deepspace Exploration and the National Astronomical Observatories of China (NAOC).

China’s Chang’e 3 mission to the Moon yielded survey images of the lunar terrain.
Credit: NAOC/Chinese Academy of Sciences

NASA chief Charles Bolden lead a delegation and visited NAOC in mid-November with discussion topics that included possible collaboration on future Moon, deep space exploration and the planetary sciences, according to NAOC.

Director of NAOC, Prof. Yan Jun and NASA Administrator, Charles Bolden.
Credit: NAOC

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