Chinese Lunar Exploration Program

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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. Support missions include Queqiao-1 (2018) and Queqiao-2 (2024), communications satellites in halo and frozen orbits respectively, for coverage of the far...

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