China's Chang'e 3 Probe Lands on the Moon, First Lunar Landing Since 1976

China successfully landed a spacecraft on the moon Saturday, less than four months after announcing that it would send a probe to the lunar surface by the end of the year.

The event marks the first time such a "soft-landing" has taken place on the moon since 1976. If the mission goes according to schedule the Chang'e 3 probe will deploy China's first moon rover, Yutu, or Jade Rabbit, in the early hours of the morning Sunday. A soft-landing is designed not to damage the spacecraft or its instruments. In 2007, China put a separate lunar probe into orbit around the moon and sent the spacecraft into a controlled crash on the lunar surface upon completion of the mission.

Chang'e 3's landing on the lunar surface makes China the third nation in the world to successfully land on the moon, after the United States and the former Soviet Union, according to Xinhua news agency, China's official media outlet.

The lunar landing took place Saturday at 9:14 p.m. Beijing time, on a region of the moon known as the Sinus Iridum, or the Bay of Rainbows. The area was selected for the landing because it has yet to be studies and the ample sunlight the region receives allows for an ease of communications between the craft and mission control on Earth, Reuters reported.

China has rapidly accelerated the progress of its space program, which it sees as vital to establishing its place the world as globally respected power, The New York Times reported. Speaking to The Times, Paul D. Spudis, a scientist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, said that the real goals of the lunar mission are to test technology for a future soft-landing mission that intends to bring lunar samples back to Earth.

"Although it will do some new science, its real value is to flight-qualify a new and potentially powerful lunar surface payload delivery system," Mr. Spudis said, referring to the third stage of China's Lunar Exploration Program, which is anticipated to happen in 2017.