China launched the Change-3 lunar probe with the countrys first moon rover， named Jade Rabbit， aboard on December 2， marking a significant step toward deep space exploration.

The probe entered the earth-moon transfer orbit as scheduled， with a perigee of 200 kilometers and apogee of 380，000 kilometers. It landed on the moon on December 14 to become Chinas first spacecraft to soft land on the surface of an extraterrestrial body.

The countrys first moon rover separated from the lander early the next day. The two photographed each other on the moons surface in the night of December 15.

The Change-3 mission marked completion of the second phase of Chinas lunar program， which includes orbiting， landing and returning to Earth. The lunar program will then enter the next stage of unmanned sampling and returning， which will include Change-5 and 6 missions. China plans to launch lunar probe Change-5 in 2017， according to the State Administration of Science， Technology and Industry for National Defense.

“The programs third phase will be more difficult because many breakthroughs must be made in key technologies such as moon surface takeoff， sampling encapsulation， rendezvous and docking in lunar orbit， and high-speed Earth reentry， which are all new to China，” said the administrations spokesman Wu Zhijian.

As the backup probe of Change-3， Change-4 will be adapted to verify technologies for Change-5， according to Wu.

Chinas Change-1 and Change-2 missions were in 2007 and 2010.