Published : 14/12/2025

At 9:10 p.m. on 14 December 2013, China's first unmanned lunar probe, Chang'e-3 (嫦娥三號), successfully performed a soft landing on the lunar surface, making China the third country in the world to achieve a soft landing on the Moon, after the United States and the Soviet Union.

The Chang'e-3 lunar probe, consisting of a lander and the '''Yutu''(玉兔) rover, has a total weight of nearly 3.8 tonnes.

Chang'e-3 was China's first mission to conduct a soft landing exploration on the Moon.

After its soft landing in the northwestern part of Mare Imbrium, it successively carried out scientific exploration tasks of ''observing the sky, looking at the earth, and surveying the moon''.

In August 2016, the Yutu rover was officially decommissioned, while the lander operated beyond its designed service life for five years, ceasing exploration in 2019.

Chang'e-3 was China's first soft landing mission on an extra-terrestrial body, achieving the second strategic goal of the "orbit, land, return" three-step lunar exploration programme.

At the same time, the Chang'e-3 lunar probe also set a world record at the time for the longest operational period on the Moon, becoming a major breakthrough for China's lunar exploration programme.