China launched a lunar probe on Friday to land on the moon other side of the moon and come back with samples that can provide insight into the differences between the less explored region and the better known near side.
It's the latest advance in China's increasingly advanced space exploration program, which now competes with the US, still the leader in space exploration.
Because the moon's somewhat mysterious far side is free from Earth exposure and other interference, it is ideal for radio astronomy and other scientific work. Since the other side never faces Earth, a relay satellite is needed to maintain communications.
China also has one three-man crew on its own space station in orbit around Earth and aims to put astronauts on the moon by 2030. Three Chinese lunar probe missions are planned over the next four years.
The Chang'e-6 lunar probe rocket – named after the Chinese mythical moon goddess – took off as scheduled from the Wenchang launch center in the island province of Hainan on Friday at 5:27 p.m.
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Large numbers of people crowded the beaches of Hainan to watch the launch, which comes in the middle of China's five-day May holiday.
After orbiting the moon to reduce speed, the lander will detach from the spacecraft and begin scooping up samples as it touches down. It will then reconnect with the returnee for the journey back to Earth. The entire mission will last 53 days.
China returned samples from the near side of the moon in 2020, the first time anyone has done so since the US Apollo program ended in the 1970s. Analysis of the samples showed that they contained water in small grains embedded in lunar dirt.
Also this past week, three Chinese astronauts returned home from a six-month mission except for the orbiting space station after the arrival of the replacement crew. The Shenzhou 18 crew replacement flight was China's seventh pilot mission to his space station and the fifth since then A 24-hour occupation was started in June 2022.
China built its own space station after being excluded from the International Space Station, largely due to U.S. concerns about the Chinese military's total control over the space program, amid heightened technology competition between the two geopolitical rivals. U.S. law prohibits virtually all cooperation between the U.S. and Chinese space programs without explicit approval from Congress.
China's ambitious space program aims to land astronauts on the moon by 2030, return samples from Mars around the same year and launch three lunar probe missions over the next four years. The next one is scheduled for 2027.
Longer-term plans call for a permanent manned base on the lunar surface, although these appear to be still in the conceptual stages.
China conducted its first manned space mission in 2003, becoming the third country after the former Soviet Union and the US to send someone into space with its own resources.
The three-module Tiangong Space Station, much smaller than the ISS, was launched in 2021 and completed 18 months later. It can accommodate up to six astronauts at a time and is primarily intended for scientific research. The crew will also install space debris protection equipment, conduct payload experiments and broadcast science lessons to students on Earth.
China has also said it eventually plans to allow foreign astronauts and space tourists access to its space station. As the ISS nears the end of its life, China could ultimately be the only country or company to maintain a manned station in orbit.
The US space program is still believed to have a significant lead over China's due to its spending, supply chains and capabilities.
The US wants to have a crew back on the lunar surface by the end of 2025 as part of a renewed commitment to crewed missions, aided by private sector players such as SpaceX and Blue Origin. They plan to land on the moon's south pole, where supposedly permanently shadowed craters are filled with frozen water.
NASA and its partners plan to decommission the ISS in 2030 and remotely launch it into a destructive atmospheric reentry over the South Pacific Ocean, away from shipping lanes and populated areas. This leaves Tiangong as the only government-operated space station in low Earth orbit.
China plans to launch its own taikonauts to the moon starting in 2030, sparking what NASA administrator Bill Nelson calls a new space race between superpowers.
“The fact is: we are in a space race,” he told Politico in an interview published last year. 'And it is true that we had better be careful that they do not reach a place on the moon under the guise of scientific research. And it's not outside the realm of possibility that they're saying, 'Stay away, we're here. , this is our territory. ''
William Harwood contributed to this report.
