3 January 2019
Waning Crescent, 8% lit
The first landing on the far side
Chang'e 4 touched down on the side of the Moon that never faces us, 59 years after Luna 3 first photographed it.
The far side has no line of sight to Earth, so the mission needed a relay satellite parked beyond the Moon just to say hello. It landed inside the South Pole–Aitken basin, the deepest crater in the solar system.
- Date
- 3 January 2019
- Moon computed for
- 10:00 local time, UTC+8
- Phase
- Waning Crescent
- Illuminated
- 8%
Source: China National Space Administration