Chang’e 3

Chang’e 3 achieved China’s first soft landing on the Moon and deployed Yutu, China’s first lunar rover. It was the first spacecraft to soft-land on the Moon since the Soviet Luna 24 in 1976 — a gap of 37 years. The lander carried a Lunar-based Ultraviolet Telescope that became the first operational astronomical observatory on the lunar surface, conducting UV observations for over two years. The Yutu rover used ground-penetrating radar to reveal at least 9 distinct subsurface layers.