China's Lunar Probe Successfully Lands on Moon's Far Side

China’s Chang’e-6 lunar craft successfully landed on the far side of the Moon to collect samples, state media reported on Sunday.

It will be the first time that a lunar probe to collect samples from the rarely explored area of the Moon, according to the agency.

Huang Wu, an official at the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, told state broadcaster CCTV that the lunar craft descended from its orbit about 200 kilometres above the Moon to scour the surface for a landing site.

Huang added: “The (descent to a lower) orbit carried a few risks, so we needed precise control procedures to put (the probe) onto its preset trajectory."

After that, “we had to rapidly reduce the probe’s relative speed to the Moon… to zero within 15 minutes, requiring a huge amount of propellant, basically half the probe’s entire weight”, he said.

The probe will attempt to scoop up lunar soil and rocks and carry out other experiments in the landing zone.