China’s lunar probe Chang’e-6 has successfully taken samples from the surface of the far side of the moon and transferred them to the probe’s orbiter-returner combination in lunar orbit on June 6, according to the China National Space Administration (CNSA).
The Chang’e-6 probe, which was launched on May 3, touched down at the designated landing area in the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the moon’s far side on June 2, where it spent two days taking samples.
The CNSA said that the orbiter-returner combination will later separate from the docked ascender and return to Earth at an appropriate time. The returner is expected to land at Siziwang Banner in North China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
It is the world’s first samples from the far side of the moon, which Xinhua’s commentary on June 6 said “will offer scientists a unique window into the moon’s evolutionary history and potentially even the origins of our solar system.”
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