Beijing: China’s Chang’e-6 lunar probe successfully landed on Tuesday in the northern Chinese region of Inner Mongolia, marking a historic achievement as the first mission to return samples from the moon’s far side. The reentry capsule touched down at 2:07 p.m. Beijing time (0607 GMT), as reported by state broadcaster CCTV. This milestone event follows the probe’s successful landing in the South Pole-Aitken Basin, an impact crater located on the moon’s far side, which never faces Earth.
Zhang Kejian, head of the China National Space Administration (CNSA), promptly announced the successful completion of the Chang’e-6 lunar mission. Chinese President Xi Jinping hailed the mission as a “landmark achievement” in China’s ambitions to become a leading space and scientific powerhouse.
Launched on May 3 from the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on the southern island of Hainan, the Chang’e-6 probe was carried by a Long March 5 rocket. The samples retrieved will be transported by air to Beijing for detailed analysis, as per CCTV.
While the exact amount of the planned 2kg of samples is yet to be confirmed, scientists, both Chinese and international, are eager to analyze whatever quantity was returned. These samples are expected to provide valuable insights into the formation of Earth, the moon, and the broader solar system. Previous samples from the Chang’e-5 mission, which collected material from the moon’s near side, led to the discovery of new minerals and refined estimates of the moon’s geological age.
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The success of the Chang’e-6 mission could significantly bolster China’s lunar and space exploration program, enhancing its standing among global governments and scientific communities, particularly in its competition with the United States. The retrieval of samples from the moon’s far side comes at a time when the exploration of lunar resources and the militarization of space are increasingly pressing issues driven by geopolitical tensions.
NASA administrator Bill Nelson has expressed concern over China’s lunar exploration advancements, describing an intensifying “space race” between the two superpowers. Neil Melville-Kenney, a technical officer at the European Space Agency (ESA) collaborating with Chinese researchers on one of the Chang’e-6 payloads, commented, “I’m glad there has been a resurgence in this (space) race, but of course, I would like to see us racing alongside each other and together.”
Despite geopolitical tensions between the European Union and China over various issues, including trade and the war in Ukraine, European space agencies and scientists continue to work closely with their Chinese counterparts on data and samples from China’s lunar missions. “We know that (the far side of the moon) is literally a different place; it is made of different materials than the near side of the moon, it has a different history… it’s really of fundamental scientific importance to get these samples back,” Melville-Kenney emphasized.
The engineer also noted that the ESA will meet with the China National Space Administration in October to discuss further collaboration. “This collaboration that we have at the moment (with China) is a small step, this was started quite a while ago, perhaps the situations were a little bit different then. Going forward I hope there will be more collaboration,” he added.
