China Launches Chang’e-6 Mission to Far Side of the Moon

While most of the US was sound asleep on Friday morning, China conducted an important launch from its Wenchang Satellite Launch Center. The Chang’e-6 lunar lander was hoisted into space by a towering Long March-5 rocket en route to the far side of the Moon. If everything goes as planned, this mission will be the first to return a sample from this barely explored region of Earth's satellite.

The far side of the Moon is sometimes called the "dark side," but that's because we know so little about it, not because it's dark. The Moon is tidally locked to Earth, so we always see the same side when we look up, with its familiar craters and expanses of cooled lava like Oceanus Procellarum. Returning a sample of dust and rock from the far side could help scientists unravel some vexing mysteries about how the Moon formed ...