China has just entered a very exclusive club, it’s now the third country to have soft-landed vehicles on the Moon. Its Chang’e 3 lander and accompanying Jade Rabbit rover successfully reached our celestial neighbor’s Bay of Rainbows on Saturday.
China has landed its first robotic lander on the moon, a historic lunar arrival that makes the country only the third nation to make a soft-landing on Earth’s celestial neighbor. China’s Chang’e 3 moon lander and its Yutu rover touched down on the moon Saturday (Dec. 14) at about 8:11 a.m. EST (1311 GMT), though it was late Saturday night local time at the mission’s control center in Beijing during the landing. It is the first soft-landing on the moon by any spacecraft in 37 years.