What do you think of this fact?
Today is the Mid-Autumn Festival. In China, Taiwan and many other parts of East Asia, families sit under the full moon and eat mooncakes. It is celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th month of the Chinese lunar calendar. And the festival’s main character now actually flies to the moon.
A goddess in the Moon Palace
At the heart of the festival is a legend: Chang’e drank an elixir of eternal life, became immortal and floated up to the moon. She has lived there ever since in the Moon Palace, together with her pet, the rabbit Yutu. It’s a myth, not history, but one almost every child in China knows.
China named its long-term lunar exploration program after exactly this goddess. The probes are simply called Chang’e 1, Chang’e 2 and so on.
The rabbit comes along
And the rabbit? It got its own rover. When China launched its first lunar vehicle with Chang’e 3 in 2013, the public got a say in the name. In the final round of a global online vote, about 650,000 of more than 3.4 million voters picked Yutu, according to Space.com. The name translates as “Jade Rabbit”.
Its successor Yutu-2 made history: it was part of the Chang’e 4 mission, which in 2019 became the first ever to land on the far side of the moon. Because there is no direct radio contact with Earth from there, a relay satellite was needed. It, too, is named after a folk tale: Queqiao, the “Bridge of Magpies”.
Moon rocks instead of mooncakes
The goddess has kept busy since. In 2020, Chang’e 5 brought about 1.7 kilograms of lunar rock and dust back to Earth. Chang’e 6 launched in May 2024 and also landed on the far side of the moon.
Even the Apollo 11 crew heard the legend in 1969. Mission Control read the astronauts a news item: they should watch for “a beautiful Chinese girl called Chang-o” who had supposedly lived there for 4000 years, along with a big rabbit.
So when you look at the full moon tonight, you’re seeing not only a goddess’s home, but also her workplace.