China is officially on its way to landing a probing rover on the surface of the moon, with a successful rocket launch early Monday morning, Xinhua News reported.

The Chang'e-3 lunar probe, perched atop the Long March-3B rocket, is expected to arrive at the moon in mid-Dec. and would be the country's first rover on an extraterrestrial body. The rocket took off from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in China's southwest province of Sichuan at 1:30 a.m.

"The probe has already entered the designated orbit," said Zhang Zhenzhong, Xixhange Launch director. "I now announce the launch was successful."

The launch will be a test of China's space technology advances. It will be its first attempt at landing a rover on another planet and is the single most important part of the mission.

"This will be a breakthrough for China to realize zero-distance observation and survey on the moon," Wu Weiren, the lunar program's chief designer, adding that 80 percent of the rover's technology and parts are brand new.

The mission is also meant to bring the general public's attention to the moon. Students at the Chinese Academy of Sciences have already opened a blog to track the mission and will update it with new developments. The blog already has 260,000 followers.

As of now, only the U.S. and the former Soviet Union have soft-landed on the moon, and this mission will be a precursor to a manned mission. Chinese officials have not discussed plans for a manned mission to the moon, but only that it is a future objective.

"We will strive for our space dream as part of the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation," Zhang said.

Chang'e-3 is carrying a moon rover called "Yutu," which means Jade Rabbit and it comes from an ancient Chinese myth. A woman named Chang'e swallowed magic pills and took her pet, Yutu, to fly to the moon where she became a goddess and has resided with her pet rabbit ever since.