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The Yutu-2 rover is on a roll. It's been exploring the far side of the moon since early 2019, as part of China's Chang'e-4 lunar lander mission. It now has its eyes set on a strange-looking cube-shaped object it spotted in the distance. Yutu-2's view of the cube is fuzzy and far-off, so the object's true nature should become clearer as the rover gets closer. The most likely explanation is a boulder. This part of the moon is pockmarked with impact craters, which can feature quite a bit of chunky debris. The Chang'e-4 mission represents the first surface exploration of...

China has declared its latest moon mission a success, hailing it as a landmark in its quest to become a strong space power by 2030. The country’s Chang’e-4 probe, named after a moon goddess of Chinese legend, was the world’s first spacecraft to land on the far side of the moon, which is not visible from the Earth. The landing on January 3 was the latest leap for Beijing as it tries to catch up with the United States in space. The Chang’e-4 mission did not stop with the historic landing. Here are five other things China’s moon probe has...

China has launched a relay satellite to prepare for a lunar rover mission planned for later in the year. The Queqiao spacecraft will establish a communications link between Earth and the landing mission, which looks set to launch in the next six months. The satellite was launched at 22:28 BST on Sunday (05:28 local time) from Xichang launch centre in the country's south-west. It will settle in an orbit about 455,000 km (282,555 miles) from Earth. This orbit will also take it more than 60,000 km from the lunar farside, where China will aim to put down with a lander...