China lands on moon’s far side in historic sample-retrieval mission

BEIJING: China landed an uncrewed spacecraft on the far side of the moon on Sunday (Jun 2), overcoming a key hurdle in its landmark mission to retrieve the world’s first rock and soil samples from the dark lunar hemisphere.

The landing elevates China’s space power status in a global rush to the moon, where countries including the United States are hoping to exploit lunar minerals to sustain long-term astronaut missions and moon bases within the next decade.

The Chang’e-6 craft, equipped with an array of tools and its own launcher, touched…