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China's lunar rover, landing vehicle take photos of each other on moon, Chinese flag visible

Associated Press
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This image taken from video, shows China's first moon rover touching the lunar surface and leaving deep traces on its loose soil on Sunday, Dec. 15, 2013, several hours after the country successfully carried out the world's first soft landing of a space probe on the moon in nearly four decades. The 300-pound "Jade Rabbit" rover separated from the much larger landing vehicle early Sunday, around seven hours after the unmanned Chang'e 3 space probe touched down on a fairly flat, Earth-facing part of the moon. The writing at the top of the image reads "Surveillance camera C image." (AP Photo/CCTV VNR via AP video) (The Associated Press)

This Saturday Dec. 14, 2013 photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, shows a picture of the moon surface taken by the on-board camera of the lunar probe Chang'e-3 on the screen of the Beijing Aerospace Control Center in Beijing, capital of China. China on Saturday successfully carried out the world's first soft landing of a space probe on the moon in nearly four decades, the next stage in an ambitious space program that aims to eventually put a Chinese astronaut on the moon. (AP Photo/Xinhua, Wang Jianmin) NO SALES (The Associated Press)

The moon is seen near a Chinese national flag in Beijing Sunday, Dec. 15, 2013. China's first moon rover touched the lunar surface and left deep traces on its loose soil, state media reported Sunday, several hours after the country successfully carried out the world's first soft landing of a space probe on the moon in nearly four decades. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan) (The Associated Press)

Chinese state media say the country's first rover on the moon and the landing vehicle that took it there have taken photos of each other on the lunar surface.

The color images showed the Chinese national flag on the rover named Yutu, or "Jade Rabbit," after a mythological creature.

Lunar program officials said the photographs taken Sunday night China time showed that the landing vehicle and rover functioned well and the mission was a success, according to remarks carried by the official Xinhua News Agency.

The Chang'e 3 landed on the moon on Saturday evening. It was the world's first soft landing of a space probe on the moon in nearly four decades.

The landing vehicle and rover have now begun on separate scientific experiments.