Chinese lunar probe becomes 1st craft to land on the dark side of the moon

On Thursday, China's state media announced that the Chang'e 4 lunar probe has successfully landed on the far side of the moon, becoming the first spacecraft to touch down on the part of the moon that always faces away from the Earth. Chang'e 4 landed at 10:26 a.m., the China National Space Administration said, and it sent back its first photo of a small crater in the South Pole-Aitken Basin at 11:40 a.m. Chang'e 4, which took off from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southern China on Dec. 8, will release a rover six hours after touchdown.

"The far side of the moon is a rare quiet place that is free from interference of radio signals from Earth," said mission spokesman Yu Guobin, according to China's official Xinhua News Agency. "This probe can fill the gap of low-frequency observation in radio astronomy and will provide important information for studying the origin of stars and nebula evolution." The mission will also try to discover if plants can grow in the moon's low gravity and explore if there's any water or other natural resources at the poles. Because the lack of radio signals on the far side, or dark side, of the moon means Earth can't directly communicated with the lunar probe, China launched a relay satellite in May.

China became just the third nation to land a spacecraft on the moon with Chang'e 3, whose Jade Rabbit lunar rover ceased operations in 2016 after 972 days exploring the moon. The U.S. was the first country to reach the moon, and the Soviet Union was the most recent before China arrived. Beijing celebrated the historic far-side landing as a sign that its ambitious space program is catching up with the U.S. and Russia.

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