China joined an elite club today when it became the first country in 40 years to land a spacecraft on the Moon. The former Soviet Union has done that too, of course, and the United States has landed both spacecraft and astronauts on the Moon. Still, considering that China didn’t even have a real space program until the early ’90s it’s a pretty impressive accomplishment.
Once the spacecraft (named Chang’e after the mythical goddess of the Moon) touched down it released a rover called the Jade Rabbit that is scheduled to explore the lunar surface for the next three months. You can read more in this CBC report.
Longer term, China plans to have a permanent space station in orbit around Earth by 2020 and also dispatch crewed expeditions to the Moon and Mars.