China Lands a Vehicle on the Dark Side of the Moon

From The New York Times – January 2, 2019

BEIJING — China reached a milestone in space exploration on Thursday, landing a vehicle on the far side of the moon for the first time in history, the country’s space agency announced.

The landing of the probe, called Chang’e-4 after the moon goddess in Chinese mythology, is one in a coming series of missions that underscore the country’s ambitions to join — and even lead — the space race.

China landed another rover on the moon in 2013, joining the United States and the Soviet Union as the only nations to have carried out a “soft landing” there, but the Chang’e-4 is the first to touch down on the side of the moon that perpetually faces away from the Earth.

The mission “has opened a new chapter in humanity’s exploration of the moon,” the China National Space Administration said in an announcement on its website. The agency said the spacecraft landed at 10:26 a.m. Beijing time at its target on the far side of the moon.

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Credit: Steven Lee Myer and Zoe Mou, The New York Times; Photo China National Space Administration/Xinhua News Agency, via Associated Press

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A photo provided on Thursday by the China National Space Administration, showing the first image of the far side of the moon taken by the Chang’e-4 probe.CreditChina National Space Administration/Xinhua News Agency, via Associated Press