Launch success sends Chinese Yutu rover to the Moon
China has launched its first Moon rover mission in the latest step in an ambitious space program seen as a symbol of its rising global stature.
Chinese state television broadcast the Chang'e-3 rocket's successful launch from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre carrying the Jade Rabbit rover at about 1:30am local time.
The probe is due to land on the Moon in mid-December to explore its surface and look for natural resources.
It is the world's third lunar rover mission, following those by the United States and former Soviet Union decades ago.
China sent probes to orbit the Moon in 2007 and 2010.
Since 2003, it has sent 10 astronauts into space and launched an orbiting space module, Tiangong-1.
Its military-led space program aims to establish a permanent space station by 2020 and eventually send someone to the Moon.
The rover's name Jade Rabbit, or "Yutu", was chosen in an online poll of 3.4 million voters.
It comes from an ancient Chinese myth about a rabbit living on the moon as the pet of Chang'e, a lunar goddess who swallowed an immortality pill.
State television showed the rocket shooting into the sky, and mission observers could be heard reporting at regular intervals that things were proceeding "normally".
The chief designer of the lunar probe, Sun Zezhou, says the mission will contribute to the development of a number of space technologies, some of which can be applied in civilian sector.