China's lunar mission journeys back to Earth with first-ever samples from moon's far side

The Chang'e-6 ascender, loaded with samples from some of the moon's oldest rocks at its south pole, lifted off from the lunar surface on June 4 at 7:38 am Chinese Standard Time, China’s space agency (CNSA) announced.

“At 7:38 a.m. on June 4, the Chang'e-6 ascender carrying lunar samples took off from the back of the moon. After the 3000N engine worked for about 6 minutes, it successfully sent the ascender into the predetermined lunar orbit,” CNSA said.

The mission achieved a milestone on June 3 with its successful ‘intelligent rapid sampling’ in the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the moon's far side. The mission also transmitted images back to Earth after landing on June 2.

The CNSA confirmed that the samples were securely sealed in a storage device carried by the ascender vehicle. “The probe withstood the high-temperature test on the back of the moon and collected lunar samples through drilling with drilling tools and surface collection with a robotic arm, achieving multi-point and diversified automatic sampling,” the agency added.

China remains the only country to have landed on the far side of the moon, first accomplishing this feat with its Chang’e-4 spacecraft in 2019. The Chang'e-6, China’s sixth lunar mission, was launched on May 3. The nation plans three more uncrewed missions this decade, aiming to discover water on the moon and explore the possibility of establishing a permanent base, according to the BBC.