BEIJING.- A Chinese lunar probe displayed the country’s red and gold flag for the first time on the far side of the Moon before part of the vehicle lifted off on Tuesday to bring samples of soil and rock back to Earth, China said Tuesday.
The mission was celebrated as a success in China, which has made significant progress in a space program that aims to land a person on the Moon before the end of this decade.
The Chang’e-6 probe was launched last month and its lunar landing module landed on the far side of the Moon on Sunday. A section of the probe lifted off Tuesday morning Beijing time and its engine ran for about six minutes before entering a preset orbit around the satellite, the China National Space Administration.
The spacecraft endured a high-temperature test on the lunar surface and obtained samples by both drilling and collecting surface material, before storing them in a container inside the probe’s ascent module as planned, the agency said.
The container will be transferred to a re-entry capsule that is scheduled to return to Earth in the deserts of China’s Inner Mongolia region around June 25.
The small flag, which the agency said was made of special materials, came out of a retractable arm from the side of the lunar landing module and was not placed on the lunar surface, according to an animation of the mission shared by the agency.
“Mission accomplished!” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying wrote in X. “An unprecedented feat in the human history of lunar exploration!”
Missions to the far side of the Moon are more difficult because it is not directly visible from Earth, and a relay satellite is needed to maintain communication. The terrain is also more rugged, with fewer flat areas in which to land.
The probe’s landing site is Aitken Basin at the south pole, a crater created by the impact of a stellar object more than 4 billion years ago, which has a depth of 13 kilometers (8 miles) and a diameter of 2,500 kilometers (1,500 miles), Xinhua said.
It is the oldest and largest such crater on the Moon, so it could provide the oldest information about it, the news agency added, noting that the huge impact could have ejected materials from far away areas. beneath the surface.
It is the sixth mission of the Chang’e lunar exploration program, named after a Chinese lunar goddess. It is the second designed to bring samples, after the Chang’e 5, which did the same from the visible side in 2020.
China’s lunar program is part of a growing rivalry with the United States — which remains the leader in space exploration — and other countries, including Japan and India. Beijing has launched its own space station into orbit and regularly sends crews.
China plans to send a human being to the surface of the Moon before 2030, making it the second nation to do so, only after the United States. Washington is scheduled to land astronauts on the Moon again—after more than 50 years—although this year NASA postponed the date to 2026.
Source: With information from AP
