SINGAPORE – China successfully landed an uncrewed spacecraft on the far side of the moon on Sunday, marking a significant milestone in its ambitious space program. The mission, aimed at retrieving rock and soil samples from the moon’s dark hemisphere, is the first of its kind in the world, according to China’s space agency.
The landing of the Chang’e 6 lunar probe elevates China’s status in the global space race, where nations like the United States are vying to utilize lunar minerals to support long-term astronaut missions and establish moon bases within the next decade.
The Chang’e-6 spacecraft, equipped with advanced tools and its own launcher, touched down in the vast South Pole-Aitken Basin at 6:23 AM Beijing time (10:23 PM GMT), stated the China National Space Administration (CNSA).
CNSA described the mission as involving “many engineering innovations, high risks, and great difficulty,” and expressed confidence that the payloads on the Chang’e-6 lander would function as intended to carry out scientific explorations.
This mission marks China’s second successful landing on the moon’s far side, a region characterized by deep craters and perpetual darkness, making communication and landing operations particularly challenging.
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The Chang’e-6 probe was launched on May 3 aboard a Long March 5 rocket from the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on Hainan Island. It reached lunar orbit within a week and adjusted its trajectory in preparation for the landing.
The lander will use a scoop and drill to collect 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds) of lunar material. These samples will be transferred to a rocket booster on the lander, which will launch back into lunar orbit, rendezvous with another spacecraft, and return to Earth, landing in China’s Inner Mongolia region around June 25.
If successful, the mission will provide a pristine record of the moon’s 4.5-billion-year history and offer new insights into the solar system’s formation. It will also enable a comparative study between the moon’s far side and its more familiar near side.
China’s broader lunar plans include its first crewed moon landing by around 2030, with Russia as a potential partner. In 2020, China conducted its first lunar sample return mission with Chang’e-5, retrieving samples from the moon’s near side.
Meanwhile, the US aims for a crewed moon landing by late 2026 through its Artemis program, in collaboration with space agencies from Canada, Europe, and Japan, whose astronauts will join US crews on future missions.