China's Chang'e 6 Probe Lands Successfully at South Pole on Moon's Far Side

China's Chang'e 6 Probe Lands Successfully at South Pole on Moon's Far Side

The lander-ascender combination of China's Chang'e-6 probe successfully landed in the Apollo crater at the designated landing area in the South Pole-Aitken (SPA) Basin on the far side of the Moon on Sunday morning, June 2, 2024 at 22:23 UTC (2 June, at 06:23 China Standard Time). Here is the footage the Chang'e-6 probe transmitted back to Earth via Queqiao-2—China's second lunar relay satellite. For the first time in human history, the Chang’e-6 lunar mission, as part of the China Lunar Exploration Program (CLEP), will collect far side lunar soil samples and return them to Earth, as well as conduct scientific measurements of the lunar environment. 

The SPA basin (43°±2° south latitude, 154°±4° west longitude) is a large impact crater on the far side of the Moon. At roughly 2,500 km (1,600 mi) in diameter and between 6.2 and 8.2 km (3.9–5.1 mi) deep, it is the largest, oldest, and deepest basin recognized on the Moon.

The Chang'e-6 spacecraft was launched on May 3, 2024, and entered lunar orbit on May 8. The landing went smoothly, as planned.

The Chang'e-6 mission features scientific payloads from France, Italy, Sweden, and Pakistan. The international scientific payloads carried by the Chang'e-6 mission include the French radon gas detector (CNES), the European Space Agency/Swedish ion analyzer, and the Italian laser corner reflector (Agenzia Spaziale Italiana). 

In 2020, Chang'e-5 was the first lunar sample-return mission since the Soviet Union's Luna 24 in 1976. The mission made China the third country to return samples from the Moon after the United States and the Soviet Union.

Video Credits: China Global Television Network (CGTN)/China National Space Administration (CNSA)/China Lunar Exploration Program (CLEP)

Duration: 1 minute, 29 seconds

Release Date: June 2, 2024

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