Long March-4C launches Queqiao (Chang’e-4 relay satellite/ 鹊桥)

A Long March-4C launch vehicle launched Queqiao (鹊桥, “Magpie Bridge”), the relay satellite for the Chang’e-4 lunar mission, from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, Sichuan Province, southwest China, on 20 May 2018, at 21:28 UTC (21 May, at 05:28 local time). Queqiao will be placed into a halo orbit around the Earth-Moon L2 Lagrange point and will provide relay communications for the Chang’e-4 lunar mission (lander and rover), expected to be launched later this year to the Aitken Basin, in the south pole r