A Chinese spacecraft lands on moon’s far side to collect rocks in growing space rivalry with US

BEIJING (news agencies) — A Chinese spacecraft has landed on the moon’s far side to collect rocks in a growing space rivalry with U.S.

The official Xinhua News Agency said the landing module touched down Sunday morning Beijing time in a huge crater known as the South Pole-Aitken Basin.

The mission is the sixth in the Chang’e moon exploration program, which is named after a Chinese moon goddess. It is the second designed to bring back samples, following the Chang’e 5, which did so from the near side in 2020.

The moon program is part of a growing rivalry with the U.S. and others, including Japan and India, to explore space. China has put its own space station in orbit and regularly sends crews there.

The emerging global power aims to put a person on the moon before 2030, which would make it the second nation after the United States to do so. America is planning to land astronauts on the moon again — for the first time in more than 50 years — though NASA pushed the target date back to 2026 earlier this year.

In China’s current mission, the lander will use a mechanical arm and a drill to gather up to 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds) of surface and underground material to send back in a capsule that is currently orbiting the moon.

An ascender atop the lander will take the samples back to the orbiter in a metal vacuum container. The container will be transferred to a re-entry capsule that is due to return to Earth in the deserts of China’s Inner Mongolia region about June 25.

Missions to the moon’s far side are more difficult because it doesn’t face the Earth, requiring a relay satellite to maintain communications.