NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) recently caught a view of China National Space Administration’s Chang’e-4 lander on the lunar surface.
A January 30, 2019, image from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter orbiting the Moon shows Chang’e 4 lander; arrows indicate position of the lander on the floor of Von Karman crater; the sharp crater behind and to the left of the landing site is 12,800 feet (3,900 m) across and 1,970 feet (600 m) deep. Image credit: NASA / GSFC / Arizona State University.
The Chang’e-4 lunar probe was launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China on December 8, 2018, and entered orbit around the Moon five days later.
On January 3, 2019, it safely landed on the floor of Von Karman crater, a 112-mile (180 km) wide crater located within an even larger impact crater known as the South Pole-Aitken Basin.
The lander then released Yutu-2 rover, which rolled out onto the surface down a ramp.
Area around Chang’e 4 lander enlarged by a factor of two relative to the native pixel scale, bright speck between two arrows is the lander; the large crater in the center (just right and below arrows) is about 1,440 feet (440 m) across. Image credit: NASA / GSFC / Arizona State University.
Four weeks later, as the LRO approached the crater from the east, it rolled 70 degrees to the west to snap this spectacular view looking across the floor toward the west wall.
Because the orbiter was 205 miles (330 km) to the east of the landing site, Chang’e 4 lander is only about two pixels across, and Yutu-2 is not detectable.
The massive mountain range in the background is the west wall of Von Karman crater, rising more than 9,850 feet (3,000 m) above the floor.
