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...