China's lunar rover successfully landed on the far side of the moon today. With this development, it has become the world's first spacecraft to survey the moon's uncharted mysterious side.
The achievement is being viewed as a giant leap in cosmic exploration and a major boost to China's quest to become a space superpower.
According to China National Space Administration (CNSA), the probe, comprising a lander and a rover, landed at the preselected landing area at 177.6 degrees east longitude and 45.5 degrees south latitude on the far side of the moon at 10:26 am (local time) The robotic spacecraft is carrying instruments to analyse the unexplored region's geology and will conduct biological experiments.
The lunar explorer Chang'e-4 probe touched down on the far side of the moon and has already sent back its first pictures from the surface, which were shared by state media. The probe was launched by a Long March-3B carrier rocket on December 8 from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in Sichuan Province. It landed on the Von Karman crater in the South Pole-Aitken basin and then sent back a picture of the landing site shot by one of the monitor cameras on the probe's lander, marking the world's first image taken on the moon's far side.
