On December 7, 2018 at 18:20 UTC (on December 8 at 02:23 Beijing time) the Chang Zheng-3B (Long March-3B) rocket-carrier was launched from Xichang Cosmodrome, Sichuan province, southwestern China. The rocket orbited and then injected the “Chang’e-4” space probe on a trajectory toward the Moon. The space vehicle is expected to enter lunar orbit after a series of course-correction maneuvers, then use braking rockets to descend to the moon’s surface, targeting a landing inside Von Karman crater in Moon’s South Pole-Aitken basin region in early January.