Published: June 26th, 2024,
Last updated: May 28th, 2025

The Chinese lunar probe Chang’e 6 has returned to Earth carrying rock and soil samples from the largely unexplored far side of the moon. According to the official Xinhua news agency, the landing module carrying the probe landed on flat grassland in Inner Mongolia on Tuesday after a 53-day journey. It is the first time in the history of space travel that a probe has collected and brought back samples from the far side of the moon.