China Says First Moon Rover Has Set Record for Longest Stay

China's first lunar rover, Yutu, has been operating on the moon for almost two years, setting a record for the longest stay by a rover, officials said on Thursday.

Yutu was deployed and landed on the moon via China's Chang'e-3 lunar probe in 2013, staying longer than the Soviet Union's 1970 moon rover Lunokhod 1, which spent 11 months on the moon, Xinhua news agency reported.

Reports of its operations have streamed live through Sina Weibo, Chinese microblogging site, and its Weibo account has nearly 600,000 followers.

Yutu experienced a mechanical control abnormality in 2014, but it was revived within a month and, though it is unable to move, it continues to collect data, send and receive signals, and record images and video.

The launch of Dongfanghong-1, China's first satellite, in 1970 made China the fifth country to launch a domestic satellite using a domestic rocket, following the Soviet Union, the US, France and Japan.

China launched its manned space programme in the 1990s and successfully sent Yang Liwei, the country's first astronaut, into orbit on the Shenzhou-5 spacecraft in 2003.

Meanwhile, China is planning to be the first country to land a lunar probe on the far side of the moon, or "dark side of the moon" which is never visible to Earth.

The mission will be carried out by Chang'e-4, a backup probe for Chang'e-3.