Chinese Lunar Exploration Program
Sign in to saveAlso known as China Lunar Exploration Project, Chang'e program, Change program
Chinese lunar space program
Key facts
- Country
- China
- Organization
- China National Space Administration (CNSA)
- Purpose
- Robotic Moon missions , Human spaceflight (beginning 2030)
- Status
- Ongoing
- Duration
- 23 January 2004–present
- First flight
- Chang'e 1 , 24 October 2007, 10:05:04.602 ( 2007-10-24UTC10:05:04Z ) UTC
- Last flight
- Chang'e 6 , 3 May 2024, 09:27:29.132 ( 2024-05-03UTC09:27:29Z ) UTC
- Launch sites
- Xichang Satellite Launch Center Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site
- Uncrewed vehicle s
- lunar orbiters , landers , rovers and sample return spacecraft
- Launch vehicle
- Long March rockets
via Wikipedia infobox
~25 min read
Encyclopedic overview
The Chinese Lunar Exploration Program (CLEP; Chinese: 中国探月工程; pinyin: Zhōngguó Tànyuè Gōngchéng), also known as the Chang'e Project (Chinese: 嫦娥工程; pinyin: Cháng'é Gōngchéng) after the Chinese Moon goddess Chang'e, is the first and ongoing series of robotic Moon missions by the China National Space Administration (CNSA), part of the Chinese space program.
Chang'e 1 (2007) and Chang'e 2 (2010) orbited the Moon, surveying potential landing sites. Chang'e 3 (2013) deployed China's first lander and rover, Yutu. Chang'e 4 (2019) made the world's first landing on the far side of the Moon; its Yutu-2 became the longest-lived lunar rover. Chang'e 5 (2020) provided the world's first lunar sample return since Luna 24 in 1974, also conducting the first robotic lunar orbit docking. Chang'e 6 (2024) retrieved the first ever lunar far side samples.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Chinese Lunar Exploration Program” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.