Just hours after NASA was forced to do so cancel the launch in Florida from a Boeing Starliner, a Chinese spacecraft landed on the far side of the moon for the second time on Sunday to collect soil and rock samples that could provide insight into the differences between the less-explored region and the better-known near side.
The lander landed 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 the Chinese moon goddess. It is the second designed to bring back samples, after Chang’e 5, which did so from the near side in 2020.
The moon program is part of a growing rivalry with the US – still the 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 rising global power aims to put a man on the moon before 2030, which would make it the second nation after the United States to do so. America plans 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 derailed Saturday’s planned first launch of Boeing’s first flight with astronauts from Cape Canaveral. A Boeing Starliner carrying two astronauts bound for the International Space Station was less than four minutes from liftoff when the computer system triggered an automatic stop. NASA initially said it would attempt another launch on Sunday before postponing a potential launch until at least Wednesday.
Last month, trouble with pressure relief valve in Starliner’s Atlas 5 rocket along a helium leak in the capsule’s propulsion module, a cleared launch attempt on May 6.
The Starliner’s first manned flight is Boeing’s answer to SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, an already operational and cheaper spacecraft that has carried 50 astronauts, cosmonauts and civilians into orbit on 13 flights, including 12 to the space station, since the initial manned test. flight in May 2020.
Earlier on Saturday, the Japanese billionaire called off his plan to fly around the moon amid uncertainty over SpaceX’s mega-rocket development. NASA plans to use a rocket to send its astronauts to the moon.
In China’s current mission, the lander is to use a mechanical arm and drill to collect up to 4.4 pounds of surface and subsurface material over about two days.
An ascender on top of the lander then takes the samples in a metal vacuum container back to another module that orbits the moon. The container will be transferred to a re-entry capsule 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 less flat areas to land on.