Footage Released of China Jade Rabbit Moon Landing

Chinese state television had so far only shown a computer-generated image of its path as it approached the surface of the moon late on Saturday.

The 300-pound rover on board the probe separated from the much larger landing vehicle early on Sunday, around seven hours after the Chang'e 3 had touched down on a fairly flat, Earth-facing part of the moon.

The mission blasted off from southwest China on December 2 on a Long March-3B carrier rocket.

The silver rover is named Yutu or Jade Rabbit after the pet of Chang'e, the goddess of the moon in Chinese mythology.

The footage shows the surface of the moon getting closer and closer to the probe before it crashes into the dust.

The video then shows the lander, covered in golden foil, standing in the Sinus Iridum or Bay of Rainbows, its solar panels open to generate power.

The mission marks the next stage in an ambitious space programme that aims to eventually put a Chinese astronaut on the moon.

The rover will spend about three months exploring the moon's surface.

China's space programme is an enormous source of pride for the country, the third to carry out a lunar soft landing - which does not damage the craft and the equipment it carries - after the United States and the former Soviet Union in 1976.