June 25 (UPI) — China’s Chang’e-6 mission successfully returned to Earth on Tuesday, bringing back the first-ever samples ever taken from the far side of the moon.
The Chang’e-6 return capsule successfully landed in the Siziwang Banner area of China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region at 2:07 p.m. local time, the China National Space Administration said. a statement.
“This marks the complete success of the lunar exploration program’s Chang’e-6 mission, which returned the world’s first sample from the far side of the moon,” the report said.
The touchdown ends Chang’e-6’s nearly two-month space mission.
The probe, consisting of an orbiter, lander, ascent lamp and returner, was launched from China on May 3 with its final destination the far side of the moon, where it landed on June 2.
Although the probe was only on the lunar surface for a few days and days, it collected samples from a crater known as the Pole-Aitken Basin before leaving the lunar surface for home on June 4.
At about 1:20 p.m. Tuesday, the return capsule successfully separated from the orbiter at an altitude of about 3,000 miles (5,000 kilometers) above the southern Atlantic Ocean and reentered Earth’s atmosphere about 20 minutes later.
According to the space agency, the capsule then bounced out of the atmosphere over the Indian Ocean as part of an “initial aerodynamic deceleration” before re-entering the atmosphere when it performed a second deceleration maneuver.
When the capsule was approximately 12 miles above the ground, it deployed with a parachute, which occurred 6 miles from landing.
Before the landing on Tuesday, the space agency sent out a mission a press release announcing the planned return of Chang’e-6, stating that it would come with “a precious ‘gift’ from the far side of the moon.”
President Xi Jinping expressed his congratulations on the success of the state-owned mission Xinhua reported.
“The Chang’e-6 mission represents an important milestone in the history of human lunar exploration and will contribute to a better understanding of the moon’s evolution,” said Yang Wei, researcher at the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy . for Sciences, the state news agency said a separate report.
“New samples will inevitably lead to new discoveries.”
China is the only country to visit the far side of the moon, with Chang’e 6 being the second visit after the Chang’e 4 mission in 2019.
