China’s lunar lander and rover spacecraft Chang’e 4 could make humankind’s first attempt to soft-land on the dark side of the moon between Tuesday and Thursday, after entering a planned orbit on Sunday morning. The moon lander was launched at Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in southern China on December 8 by Long March 3B rocket and entered lunar orbit four days later. To solve that problem, China launched a relay satellite, Queqiao (or Magpie Bridge), between Earth and the moon. Operating about 400,000km (250,000 miles) from Earth, Queqiao will pass on signals to the lunar lander and rover of Chang’e 4. China will launch a returnable spacecraft called Chang’e 5 by 2020, under the third and final phase of the plan.

Source: The Star December 31, 2018 07:52 UTC