NASA hasn’t landed on the Moon in decades—China just sent its third in six years
China is going back to the Moon for more samples.
On Friday the country launched its largest rocket, the Long March 5, carrying an orbiter, lander, ascent vehicle, and a return spacecraft. The combined mass of the Chang'e-6 spacecraft is about 8 metric tons, and it will attempt to return rocks and soil from the far side of the Moon—something scientists have never been able to study before in-depth.
The mission's goal is to bring about 2 kg (4.4 pounds) of rocks back to Earth a little more than a month from now. Chang'e-6 builds upon the Chinese space program's successful lunar program. In 2019, the Chang'e-4 mission made a soft landing on the far side of the Moon, the first time this had ever been done by a spacecraft. The far side is more challenging than the near side, because line-of-sight communications are not possible with Earth.
