Change's 4 landed in the unexplored South Pole-Aitken basin, which is the largest, oldest and deepest crater on the moon's surface.
China
on Thursday successfully landed a spacecraft
on the far side of the moon, becoming the first in history to touch
the lunar surface unseen from Earth, according to media reports.
The
China National Space Administration (CNSA) landed the robotic probe —
Change's 4 — in the unexplored South Pole-Aitken basin, which is
the largest, oldest and deepest crater on the moon's surface. The
probe entered an elliptical path around the moon last weekend,
drawing up to 15-kilometre close from the surface.
The
Change's-4 was launched from Xichang, southwestern China,
on December 8. The probe reached the final orbit around the moon
after 22 days and transmitted the first-ever "close range"
image of the dark side of the moon.
The
mission is one in a series that underscore the country's ambitious
plan to join the space race. Followed by the United States and
Russia, China is only the third country to send its own astronauts
into space on its own rockets.
The
moon is tidally locked to Earth, rotating at the same rate that it
orbits our planet, so the far side - or the "dark side" -
is never visible from Earth. Previous spacecraft have seen the far
side of the moon but none has landed on it.
The
landing "lifted the mysterious veil" from the far side of
the moon, and "opened a new chapter in human lunar exploration",
reported Global Times. The mission aims to take detailed measurements
of the moon's terrain and mineral composition.
The
landing was also greeted by Nasa
administrator Jim Brindestine. He tweeted:
China
now plans to begin fully operating its third space station by 2022.
It not only plans to send probes to Mars but also retrieve samples of
the Martian surface.
Business Standard
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