January 3, 2019

Top News Stories –

China says it has successfully landed a robotic spacecraft on the far side of the Moon, the first ever such attempt and landing.

At 10:26 Beijing time (02:26 GMT), the un-crewed Chang’e-4 (Chinese: 嫦娥四号; pinyinCháng’é Sìhào; literally: ‘Chang’e No. 4′) probe touched down in the South Pole-Aitken Basin, state media said.

It is carrying instruments to analyse the unexplored region’s geology, as well to conduct biological experiments.

The landing is being seen as a major milestone in space exploration.

There have been numerous missions to the Moon in recent years, but the vast majority have been to orbit, fly by or impact. The last crewed landing was Apollo 17 in 1972. [BBC

List of the Day –

Manned moon landings:

Mission nameLunar landerLunar landing dateLunar liftoff dateLunar landing siteDuration on lunar surface (DD:HH:MM)CrewNumber of EVAsTotal EVA Time (HH:MM)
Apollo 11Eagle20 July 196921 July 1969Sea of Tranquility0:21:31Neil ArmstrongEdwin “Buzz” Aldrin12:31
Apollo 12Intrepid19 November 196921 November 1969Ocean of Storms1:07:31Charles “Pete” ConradAlan Bean27:45
Apollo 14Antares5 February 19716 February 1971Fra Mauro1:09:30Alan B. ShepardEdgar Mitchell29:21
Apollo 15Falcon30 July 19712 August 1971Hadley Rille2:18:55David ScottJames Irwin318:33
Apollo 16Orion21 April 197224 April 1972Descartes Highlands2:23:02John YoungCharles Duke320:14
Apollo 17Challenger11 December 197214 December 1972Taurus–Littrow3:02:59Eugene CernanHarrison “Jack” Schmitt322:04

Twitter trends [from Trendinalia] – today from USA

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Business and economy

Disasters and accidents

International relations

Law and crime

Politics and elections

Science and technology

Sports

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource