2001–2012: Planetary Exploration Becomes Persistent
Chang’e 1
First Chinese lunar mission; inaugurated the Chang’e exploration programme.
Era 4 of 6 · full record in the catalog
- Launch
- 24 Oct 2007
- Lead / partner
- China
- Target
- Moon
- Category
- Lunar orbiter
- Status
- Success
- Vehicle
- Chang Zheng 3A
- Mass
- unknown
- Orbit / trajectory
- Selenocentric
- Duration
- 1 year (planned) (final)
Why it happened
Chang’e 1 flew during 2001–2012: Planetary Exploration Becomes Persistent, as part of China's work toward moon. A sourced write-up of the context around this mission is still on the editorial queue; nothing here is invented to fill the gap.
The mission
The full narrative of this mission is pending research and writing. What is recorded so far: First Chinese lunar mission; inaugurated the Chang’e exploration programme.
Results
First Chinese lunar mission; inaugurated the Chang’e exploration programme.
Related missions
Sources & image credits
- Shujianyang, via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0 · license: cc-by-sa-4.0 (source, checked 2026-08-23)
- Mission record: AntarikshPedia canonical dataset (data-sources/missions_timeline.md)
- Specifications reference: NASA NSSDCA Master Catalog
