An unmanned probe has touched down on the lunar surface for a historic mission.
Chinaβs unmanned Changβe 6 spacecraft has successfully landed on the Moon in a landmark mission to collect soil and rock samples from the far side of Earthβs natural satellite, the China National Space Administration has announced. The probe landed in a pre-selected area in the northeastern part of the South Pole-Aitken basin at 6:23am Beijing time on Sunday.
The lander is expected to go through initial checks and then start gathering samples from the lunar surface using its robotic arm. If successfully returned, it would provide scientists with the first samples from the Moonβs little-explored dark hemisphere, which always faces away from the Earth.
The mission is expected to last around 53 days, the Chinese space agency said in a statement. It also shared stunning footage filmed by the spacecraft during the final moments of landing.
