China launches its first moon rover – state TV

The Long March 3B rocket carrying the Chang’e-3 lunar probe is prepared for launch at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Xichang in southwest China’s Sichuan province on Sunday, Dec. 1, 2013. China launches Chang’e-3 lunar probe in the early hours of Monday Dec. 2, 2013, that will send the country’s first lunar lander and rover named “Jade Rabbit” onto the moon. AP

BEIJING – China launched its first moon rover mission early Monday, state TV showed, the latest step in an ambitious space program seen as a symbol of its rising global stature.

The Chang’e-3 rocket carrying the Jade Rabbit rover blasted off around 1:30 am (Sunday 1730 GMT) into the dark sky, the CCTV official broadcaster showed in live footage from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in the southwest of the country.

The probe is due to land on the moon in mid-December, in the world’s third lunar rover mission following the United States and former Soviet Union decades ago.

The military-led program aims to establish a permanent space station by 2020 and eventually send someone to the moon.

The rover’s name Jade Rabbit, or “Yutu”, was chosen in an online poll of 3.4 million voters.

It comes from an ancient Chinese myth about a rabbit living on the moon as the pet of Chang’e, a lunar goddess who swallowed an immortality pill.