The Long March-3B carrier rocket carrying China's Chang'e 3 lunar probe blasts off from the launch pad at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, southwest China's Sichuan Province, on Dec. 2, 2013. The event meant a first for China to send a spacecraft to soft-land on the surface of an extraterrestrial body, where it will conduct surveys of the Moon's surface. [China.org.cn]