Chang’e 3: China’s lunar lander
China successfully lands the unmanned lunar lander Chang’e 3 on the surface of the moon, only the third country on Earth to achieve a controlled lunar landing (and the first soft landing of a man-made space vehicle on the moon since the 1970s). With Chang’e 3 confirming that its solar panels have properly deployed, preparations are made to deploy its robotic lunar rover, Yutu, the first lunar rover since 1973, breaking a four-decade drought in exploring the surface of the moon.