Chinese probe Chang'e-6 returns with Moon's far side samples, completing a historic mission.
Officials prepare to recover the landing module of the Change-6 moon probe after it landed in Inner Mongolia, in northern China on June 25, 2024. – A Chinese probe carrying samples from the far side of the Moon returned to Earth on June 25, capping a technically complex 53-day mission heralded as a world first. / China OUT / CHINA OUT
It comes bearing soil and rocks from the side of the Moon facing away from Earth, a poorly understood region that scientists say holds great research promise because its rugged features are less smoothed over by ancient lava flows than the near side. Chang’e-6 blasted off from a space centre on the island province of Hainan on May 3 and descended into the Moon’s immense South Pole-Aitken Basin almost exactly a month later.It used a drill and robotic arm to scoop up samples, snapped some shots of the pockmarked surface and planted a Chinese flag made from basalt in the grey soil.
“We hope that our country’s space exploration will continue to advance and that our nation will become stronger,” Uljii, a local herdsman, told Xinhua.But the mission has also sparked a torrent of online misinformation, with some users of the Weibo social media platform seizing on the unfurling of the Chinese flag to push the false claim that Washington faked the Apollo Moon landings, AFP Fact Check found.
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