The salvation of CNSA’s [Chinese National Space Agency] public image is likely thanks to the insights of a group of young people with a Weibo account, whoever they may be. On Dec. 2, 2013, the account started to report the Yutu lunar mission in the first person, anthropomorphic voice of a brave rabbit explorer, who often interacted with ordinary Internet users using the latest web slang. As a result, while Chinese taikonauts – likely heavily coached by members of state-run media – have come off as robotic, the purported Weibo voice of what’s assuredly a robot has paradoxically seemed deeply human. En route skyward, the Yutu avatar wrote that it stole one last look at Earth: It was “really blue,” which made him “a bit sad.” The account lamented forgetting to “strike a pose” when the United States’ Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter flew by to take a picture. Occasionally, Yutu’s account retweeted images of actual rabbits.

One possible explanation for Yutu’s unusually savvy campaign is that its architects are not in fact employed by Chinese authorities. The identity of Yutu’s Weibo handlers remains a mystery; although U.S. outlets including CNN and news satire The Daily Show have referredto Yutu’s Weibo comments as if they hail directly from state media, the account generating the quotes is not actually verified as the official account of CNSA’s mission control, although it seems to have inside knowledge of Yutu’s latest comings and goings. Internet users have speculated that the account is actually managed by Guokr, an online community site dedicated to explaining popular science. (Guokr is one of only three accounts that Yutu follows and there are frequent interactions between them.) In other words, if the government is behind this social media success, many can’t believe it.

Regardless of the identity of its ultimate mastermind, the successful effort to personalize China’s Yutu mission shows a path to PR success for a Chinese space program that has been searching for one for more than a decade.

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