China landed its uncrewed spacecraft Chang’e-6 on the far side of the moon on June 2, a landmark mission aiming to retrieve the world’s first rock and soil samples from the dark lunar hemisphere.
- The landing marks China’s space power status in a global rush to the moon, where countries, including the United States, are hoping to exploit lunar minerals to sustain long-term astronaut missions and moon bases within the next decade.
- The Chang’e-6 craft, equipped with an array of tools and its own launcher, touched down inside Apollo Crater, within the giant South Pole-Aitken basin on the moon’s space-facing side or far side.
- In 2020 China conducted its first lunar sample return mission with Chang’e-5, retrieving samples from the moon’s near-facing side.
- China’s broader lunar strategy includes its first astronaut landing around 2030 in a program in which it counts Russia as a burgeoning partner.
