The Chang’e-6 probe was successfully launched from China’s Wenchang Spaceport in Wenchang, Hainan Province, China, on May 3, 2024.
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China’s Chang’e-6 lunar probe returned to Earth on Tuesday, bringing back the first samples from the unexplored far side of the moon.
The re-entry capsule landed in the northern Chinese region of Inner Mongolia at 2:07 pm local time, according to a Google-translated update from the China National Space Administration (CNSA), which declared the mission “a complete success.”
Chang’e-6 returned to Earth with soil collected from the South Pole-Aitken Basin – a large crater in the lunar hemisphere that always faces away from Earth.
The probe landed on the moon on June 2, took off again on June 4 and then spent 13 days in lunar orbit before returning to Earth. In total, the Chang’e-6 mission took 53 days from the May 3 departure from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in Hainan, an island off the southern coast of China.
The probe will be taken to Beijing where the cabin will be opened and the sample container removed.
The return of Chang’e-6 comes months after India safely landed its Chandrayaan-3 mission on the unexplored south pole of the moon in August last year. The so-called “dark side” of the moon has attracted attention for a long time – it is always silent from the view of the Earth because it is locked by the tides and completes one complete rotation at the same time to go around the Earth. The far side of the moon was first photographed in 1959 by the Soviet spacecraft Luna 3.
Chinese President Xi Jinping congratulated the CNSA for “another landmark achievement in my country’s efforts to build space power and scientific and technological strength,” according to a Google translation of the leader’s message, shared by the space agency.
Chang’e-6’s predecessor, Chang’e-5, successfully returned in 2020 after unveiling the first Chinese national flag on the moon. It is set to collect about 2kg of lunar regolith. The achievement made China only the third country – after the US and the Soviet Union – to obtain lunar sampling at the time, although it was not yet known exactly what it might bring back.
Beijing’s ambitions are more ambitious, with China previously confirming plans to achieve an astronaut mission by 2030.
The national space program has long been a symbol of international prestige, culminating in the 20th century race between Cold War rivals the US and the Soviet Union to pioneer and develop space flight capabilities. Washington scored a critical victory when astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon in July 1969.
The space program remains a major public interest and expense, with world government funding for the initiative reaching a record $117 billion by 2023, according to Statista data. Even so, the well-known NASA in the US has to tighten its budget requests.