WOW, AWESOME Video of China Lunar Landing!

This is just about the BEST lunar video I have seen since NASA put man on the Moon. This 6 Minute video is crystal clear and shows the entire decent and landing if the Chang’e 3  Lunar Lander with the “Yutu” (Jade Rabbit).rover, You owe it to yourself to watch this awesome video. Thanks to Jason H. for pointing it out on his Google+ page.

The perspective is from he decent camera on the bottom of the lander so you see can see the entire decent from the view of the probe, This is raw footage and I have to hand it to China it is…well, just incredible. The craft was launched aboard the Long March-3B carrier rocket, which blasted off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China at 1:30 a.m. December 1, 2013.

The video shows the entire decent from high above the moon until touchdown. If you look closely you can see as the lander hovers briefly before landing. I assume this is to allow the altimeter to get an accurate distance reading to the surface before the final descent. After that you can see small plums of lunar dust kicking up and growing as the thrusters lower the probe to the surface and final engine cut off.

Enjoy the show!