From spaceflightnow.com:
The Yutu rover, mounted on a stationary rocket-powered landing platform, will touch down on the moon Dec. 14. If it makes it, the Chinese mission will be the first spacecraft to achieve a soft landing on the moon since 1976.
The lunar landing mission is named Chang’e 3, the third Chinese lunar probe following a pair of orbiters launched in 2007 and 2010.
Packed with a ground-piercing radar, cameras, spectrometers and plutonium-powered heaters, the rover lifted off at 1730 GMT (12:30 p.m. EST) Sunday from the Xichang launching base in southern China’s Sichuan province. Launch occurred at 1:30 a.m. Beijing time Monday.
The 185-foot-tall Long March 3B rocket ignited its eight hydrazine-fueled first stage and booster engines and climbed away from its mountainous launch pad, shedding the liquid-fueled boosters and first stage a few minutes later.
A hydrazine-fueled second stage and hydrogen-fueled third stage were expected to propel the Chang’e 3 lander on a direct four-day trajectory to the moon, where it will brake into orbit Dec. 6.