Chang'e 3 on the way to the moon

China made this one look easy:



Apparently it has now entered an Earth-Moon transfer orbit with an apogee of 360,000 km, so it's on its way. Landing will be the next challenge.

Another plus of a lunar mission: 1.3 second delay (2.6 seconds return time) makes observation in near real-time a possibility. Compare that to the seven minutes of terror for the Curiosity rover. It still managed to succeed, but the preparation involved to make it happen was mind-blowing.