The probe landed in a pre-selected area in the northeastern part of the South Pole-Aitken basin at 6:23am Beijing time on Sunday, RT reported.
The lander is expected to go through initial checks and then start gathering samples from the lunar surface using its robotic arm. If successfully returned, it would provide scientists with the first samples from the Moon’s little-explored dark hemisphere, which always faces away from the Earth.
The mission is expected to last around 53 days, the Chinese space agency said in a statement. It also shared stunning footage filmed by the spacecraft during the final moments of landing.
The probe, which was launched on May 3, is the sixth in the Chang’e Project – the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program – and the second intended for bringing back samples. Its predecessor, Chang’e 5, brought back rocks from the Moon’s near side in 2020, which led to surprising findings about the celestial body as the samples turned out to be much younger than those retrieved by the US Apollo and Soviet Luna missions 50 years ago.
MNA/PR
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