Yutu-2
Sign in to saveAlso known as Jade Rabbit-2, Yutu 2
Yutu-2 () is the robotic lunar rover component of CNSA's Chang'e 4 mission to the Moon, launched on 7 December 2018 18:23 UTC, it entered lunar orbit on 12 December 2018 before making the first soft landing on the far side of the Moon on 3 January 2019. Yutu-2 is currently operational as the longest-lived lunar rover after it eclipsed (on 20 November 2019) the previous lunar longevity record of 321 Earth days held by the Soviet Union's Lunokhod 1 rover.
Key facts
- Spaceflight.name
- Yutu-2
- Spaceflight.image
- ChangE-4, Yutu-2 (cropped).png
- Spaceflight.image_caption
- Yutu-2 rover on the Moon as seen by the Chang'e 4 lander
- Spaceflight.image_size
- 300px
- Spaceflight.mission_type
- lunar rover
- Spaceflight.operator
- CNSA
- Spaceflight.mission_duration
- 3 months (planned) Current:
- Spaceflight.launch_mass
- Rover: 140 kg
- Spaceflight.landing_mass
- 140 kg
- Spaceflight.dimensions
- 1.5 × 1.0 × 1.0 m
- Spaceflight.launch_date
- 7 December 2018, 18:23 UTC
- Spaceflight.launch_rocket
- Long March 3B
- Spaceflight.launch_site
- Xichang Satellite Launch Center
- Spaceflight.programme
- Chinese Lunar Exploration Program rovers
- Spaceflight.previous_mission
- Yutu
- Spaceflight.next_mission
- Yidong Xiangji
- Spaceflight/IP.type
- rover
- Spaceflight/IP.object
- Lunar
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- lunar rover
- Part of
- Chang'e 4
- Named after
- Moon rabbit
- Country
- China
- Location
- Von Kármán
- Mass
- 140
- Image
- ChangE-4, Yutu-2 (cropped).png
- Height
- 1
- Width
- 1
- Length
- 1.5
Show 8 more facts
- carries scientific instrument
- camera
- UTC date of spacecraft landing
- 2019-01-03
- location of landing
- Von Kármán
- source of energy
- radioisotope heater unit
- start point
- Xichang Satellite Launch Center
- space launch vehicle
- Long March 3B
- UTC date of spacecraft launch
- 2018-00-00
- Commons category
- Yutu 2
Sources (1)
via Wikidata · CC0
~7 min read
Encyclopedic overview
10 sectionsContents
- Overview
- Science payloads
- Cost
- Landing site
- Operations and results
- Gel-like Substance
- Mystery Hut
- See also
- References
- External links
Yutu-2 () is the robotic lunar rover component of CNSA's Chang'e 4 mission to the Moon, launched on 7 December 2018 18:23 UTC, it entered lunar orbit on 12 December 2018 before making the first soft landing on the far side of the Moon on 3 January 2019. Yutu-2 is currently operational as the longest-lived lunar rover after it eclipsed (on 20 November 2019) the previous lunar longevity record of 321 Earth days held by the Soviet Union's Lunokhod 1 rover.
Yutu-2 is the first lunar rover to traverse the far side of the Moon. By January 2022, it had travelled a distance of more than along the lunar surface. Data from its ground penetrating radar (GPR) has been used by scientists to put together imagery of multiple layers deep beneath the surface of the far side of the Moon. As of September 2025, the Yutu-2 was still active, after a period of immobility, images from the LRO in September 2025 showed that it made small movements on the surface in the last lunar days (for a total of over 1,600 meters, about a mile).
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Yutu-2” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.