China has just successfully scored its latest forte in the space race after landing on the Moon's dark side for the second time.— has landed on the side of our natural satellite that faces away from Earth. Back in early 2019, the program's fourth iteration made history as the
China is now attempting to make history once again with Chang'e 6, which is slated to scoop up rocks from the Moon's dark side and take off again to return home. While there have been previous missions to, have a brief 14-hour window to collect about 4.4 pounds of rock samples. Those space rocks will then be launched with a special rocket that will rendezvous with the, which is currently cruising around the Moon. Soon after, the orbiter will schlep back down to Earth with samples in tow.
"This is a really core event in the history of the whole solar system, but there is some controversy about whether it happened or not," Carpenter said. "To understand that, you need to anchor those events, and that's going to be done with samples from the lunar far side."