Elijah Williams
Just hours after NASA was forced to rule out launch in Florida From the Boeing Starliner for the second time, a Chinese spacecraft landed on the far side of the Moon on Sunday to collect soil and rock samples that could provide information about the differences between the less explored region and the better-known near side.
The lander touched down at 6:23 a.m. Beijing time in a huge crater known as the South Pole-Aitken Basin, the China National Space Administration said.
The mission is the sixth in the Chang’e lunar exploration program, which is named after a Chinese lunar goddess. It is the second designed to bring back samples, after Chang’e 5, which did so from the near side in 2020.
The lunar program is part of a growing rivalry with the US – still a leader in space exploration – and others, including Japan and India. China has placed its own space station in orbit and regularly sends crews there.
China National Space Administration/Xinhua News Agency via AP, File
The emerging global power aims to put a person on the Moon before 2030, which would make it the second nation after the United States to do so. America is planning to land astronauts on the Moon again – for the first time in more than 50 years – although NASA pushed back the target date to 2026 earlier this year.
US efforts to use private sector rockets to launch spacecraft have been repeatedly delayed. Last-minute computer problems scuppered the planned launch of Boeing’s first astronaut flight Saturday from Cape Canaveral. The Boeing Starliner, carrying two astronauts bound for the International Space Station, was less than four minutes away from liftoff when a computer system triggered an automatic hold. NASA initially said it would attempt another launch on Sunday, before delaying the potential launch until at least Wednesday.
Last month, problems with pressure relief valve on Starliner’s Atlas 5 rocket, over a helium leak in the capsule’s propulsion module, canceled a launch attempt on May 6.
The Starliner’s first piloted flight is Boeing’s response to SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, an already operational and cheaper spacecraft that has carried 50 astronauts, cosmonauts and civilians to orbit in 13 flights, 12 of them to the space station, since an initial piloted test flight in May 2020.
Earlier on Saturday, a Japanese billionaire canceled his plan to orbit the Moon due to uncertainty over SpaceX’s development of a mega-rocket. NASA is planning to use the rocket to send its astronauts to the moon.
In China’s current mission, the lander is expected to use a mechanical arm and a drill to collect up to 4.4 kilograms of surface and underground material over about two days.
An elevator on top of the lander will then carry the samples in a metal vacuum container back to another lander that is orbiting the moon. The container will be transferred to a reentry capsule that is expected to return to Earth in the deserts of China’s Inner Mongolia region around June 25.
Missions to the far side of the Moon are more difficult because it is not facing Earth, requiring a relay satellite to maintain communications. The terrain is also more rugged, with fewer flat areas to land on.
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