China’s Chang’e-6 lunar probe departed the far side of the Moon on Tuesday, moving closer to completing an ambitious mission that underscores the country’s rise as a space superpower.
In a symbolic moment before liftoff, China also became the first country to display its national flag on the far side of the Moon, which permanently faces away from Earth.
The probe, carrying the first lunar rocks ever collected from the far side of the Moon, lifted off and entered lunar orbit early Tuesday morning Beijing time, following successful sample collection over the previous two days, according to with a statement from the China National Space Administration (CNSA).
The return trip to Earth is estimated to take about three weeks, with a landing expected in the Inner Mongolia region of China around June 25.
The successful return of the samples would give China a head start in harnessing the strategic and scientific benefits of expanded lunar exploration – an increasingly competitive field that has contributed to what NASA chief Bill Nelson , calls it a new “space race”.
This is the second time China has collected samples from the Moon, after Chang’e-5 brought back rocks from the visible side in 2020.
Earlier this year, Nelson appeared to recognize that China’s pace — and concerns about its intentions — were driving the American urgency to return to the Moon, decades after the manned Apollo missions.
A photo posted by CNSA on Tuesday and trending on the Weibo platform, similar to X (formerly Twitter), shows the perforated surface in a shape that resembles the Chinese character “zhong”, or “middle” in English – the first character in the Chinese word for “China”.
The Chang’e-6 probe withstood “the test of high temperatures” and collected the samples by drilling into the Moon’s surface and collecting soil and rocks with a mechanical arm, the CNSA said.
After collecting the samples, Chang’e-6 extended a robotic arm to raise the Chinese flag, according to an animation released by CNSA.
The flag, made from volcanic rock basalt, was designed to resist corrosion and extreme temperatures on the far side of the Moon with a focus on future lunar missions, a Chang’e-6 engineer told state broadcaster CCTV.
The rock “was crushed, melted and formed into filaments about a third the diameter of a human hair, then spun into thread and woven into fabric,” said engineer Zhou Changyi.
“The lunar surface is rich in basalt,” added Zhou. “As we are building a lunar base in the future, we will probably have to transform the basalt into fibers and use it as a building material.”
Historical mission
Chang’e-6 successfully landed on Sunday morning (2) in the South Pole-Aitken Basin, the oldest impact basin on the Moon, formed around 4 billion years ago. This was the second successful landing on the far side of the moon, after China first accomplished this historic feat in 2019 with the Chang’e-4 probe.
If all goes as planned, the mission – which began on May 3 and is expected to last 53 days – could be a major milestone in China’s bid to become a dominant space power.
The country’s plans include landing astronauts on the Moon by 2030 and building a research base at its south pole, a region believed to contain water ice.
Samples collected by the Chang’e-6 lander could provide crucial clues about the origin and evolution of the Moon, Earth and Solar System, according to experts – while the mission itself provides important data and technical practice to advance lunar ambitions from China.
“The enigmatic far side of the Moon is so different from the visible side in many ways that without returned samples, lunar scientists cannot fully understand the Moon as a complete planetary body,” said James Head, professor emeritus at Brown University who collaborated with the Chinese scientists leading the mission. “The samples returned from Chang’e-6 will enable major advances in solving these problems.”
The far side of the Moon is beyond the range of normal communications, which means Chang’e-6 must also rely on a satellite launched into lunar orbit in March, Queqiao-2.
China plans to launch two more missions in the Chang’e series as it approaches its goal of sending astronauts to the Moon by 2030.
Space race
Several countries are expanding their lunar programs, with an increasing focus on securing access to resources and exploring deep space.
Last year, India landed a spacecraft on the Moon for the first time, while Russia’s first lunar landing mission in decades ended in failure when its Luna 25 probe crashed onto the lunar surface.
In January, Japan became the fifth country to land a spacecraft on the Moon, although its Moon Sniper lander experienced power problems due to an incorrect landing angle. The following month, IM-1, a mission funded by NASA and designed by private Texas company Intuitive Machines, landed near the lunar south pole.
That landing — the first by a U.S.-made spacecraft in more than five decades — is among several commercial missions planned to explore the lunar surface before NASA tries to return American astronauts there as early as 2026 and build its scientific base camp.
Japan makes historic lunar landing of “sniper” explorer robot
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