The Long March-3B carrier rocket carrying China's Chang'e-3 lunar probe blasts off from the launch pad at Xichang Satellite Launch Center, southwest China's Sichuan Province, Dec.2, 2013. It will be the first time for China to send a spacecraft to soft land on the surface of an extraterrestrial body, where it will conduct surveys on the moon.
Photo is courtesy of Xinhua news Agency/Li Gang.

[SatNews] The Long March-3B carrier rocket carrying China’s Chang’e-3 lunar probe blasted off from the launch pad at Xichang Satellite Launch Center, southwest China’s Sichuan Province, on December 2, 2013.

This will be the first time has sent a spacecraft to soft land on the surface of an extraterrestrial body, where it will conduct surveys on the moon.
The Xinhua News Agency is reporting that this launch of China’s lunar probe Chang’e-3 was “successful.”The announcement of the launch success was made by the  Xichang Satellite Launch Center.

Zhang Zhenzhong, director of the center, made the announcement after the lunar probe entered the Earth-Moon transfer orbit and unfolded its solar panels. The Chang’e-3 lunar probe, aboard a Long March-3B carrier rocket, blasted off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China at 1:30 a.m. on Monday, December 2nd, and is expected to soft-land on the moon in mid-December.
 

The 3.78 ton Chang’e-3 arrived at the orbit with a perigee of 200 kilometers and an apogee of 380,000 kilometers, as scheduled.

This artistic rendition shows the separation of the lunar lander from the launch vehicle. Artistic rendition is courtesy of Xinhua/Zheng Yue.