From New Scientist:
"The crew of the final Apollo mission lifted off from the moon's Sea of Serenity on 14 December 1972. After that, three robotic Soviet spacecraft made it to the surface, the final one in 1976. For the next few decades, the moon's only visitors were a dozen or so orbiters and deliberate crashes.
Launched on 2 December, the Chang'e-3 mission was scheduled to touch down in a 235-kilometre-wide crater known as the Bay of Rainbows. The spacecraft has already slipped into an orbit that takes it within 15 kilometres of the surface. To make the soft landing, it needed to fire retrorockets to adjust its position, cut off its engine and ultimately drop from a height of 4 metres.
"Hopefully the lander doesn't tilt," says Bernard Foing, director of the International Lunar Exploration Working Group, a forum sponsored by multiple space agencies. Once on the surface, the lander should set free a rover named Yutu – which translates as "Jade Rabbit" – after the mythological pet of lunar goddess Chang'e.
India and South Korea are also in the running to send missions to the moon that would involve combinations of landers and rovers. India could launch its Chandrayaan-2 mission by 2017, while the newly proposed Korean mission won't be lifting off before 2020."