 Space News space history and artifacts articles Messages space history discussion forums Sightings worldwide astronaut appearances Resources selected space history documents |
If you have previously registered, but forgotten your password, click here.
The first batch of data has been sent back from China's Chang'e-6 lander-ascender combination after its successful landing in the designated area of the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the far side of the moon on Sunday morning. | ||||||||
| Blackarrow | I imagine Jack Schmitt will be watching this with particular interest. | |||||||
| Robert Pearlman | CCTV video The China National Space Administration (CNSA) on Tuesday unveiled four images of the moon's far side taken by the Chang'e-6 probe, including three taken during its landing and one from the panoramic camera capturing the landing site. China's Chang'e-6 probe successfully completed sampling from the moon's far side on Monday, an unprecedented feat in human lunar exploration history. The ascender of China's Chang'e-6 probe lifted off from lunar surface on Tuesday morning, carrying samples collected from the moon's far side, an unprecedented feat in human lunar exploration history. | |||||||
| GACspaceguy | That is really impressive. | |||||||
| damnyankee36 | They sure went to a lot of trouble to actually "fly" a flag instead of displaying the usual flag decal like I've seen us do. Has China done this before on their lunar landers? | |||||||
| Robert Pearlman | They did the same on Chang'e-5 (you can see a photo in this thread), but according to CNSA, "due to the different landing location on the moon, the Chang'e-6 national flag display system has been adaptively improved on the basis of the Chang'e-5 mission." | |||||||
| drs. j | Is there any update to this mission? Very interesting to follow what the Chinese all do to develop their space capabilities. | |||||||
| Robert Pearlman | China has not released any more information since June 6, when it confirmed that the orbiter and returner (reentry capsule) was on its way back to Earth. Unofficially, analysts monitoring the mission have said that the return capsule is expected to land in Siziwang Banner, Inner Mongolia, between 0541 and 0611 GMT on June 25 (1:41 a.m. and 2:11 a.m. EDT). | |||||||
| drs. j | Thank you. Yes, I learned that the capsule landed safely earlier today. Interesting shape of the return capsule: semi scale Soyus I'd call it. | |||||||
| Robert Pearlman | It was the same design of capsule used on Chang'e-5, but yes, it does resemble a scaled down Soyuz or Shenzhou descent module. CCTV video The returner of the Chang'e-6 probe touched down on Earth on Tuesday, bringing back the world's first samples collected from the moon's far side. China's Chang'e-6 probe has made history after completing its 53-day mission on Tuesday, becoming the first spacecraft to successfully retrieve and return precious samples from the mysterious far side of the Moon and bringing mankind closer to understanding our enigmatic celestial neighbor. China's Chang'e 6 lunar probe, which returned to the Earth on Tuesday afternoon, will be transported back to the capital city of Beijing, after undergoing preliminary examination and shipment preparation. | |||||||
| Tom | I remember during the Apollo program, lunar samples were shared with several countries for research as well as display. Do you know if the same could be said for these samples? | |||||||
| Robert Pearlman | Ge Ping, deputy director of the China National Space Administration's Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering Center, told the press and international scientists will have access to Chang'e-6 samples as was the case with Chang'e-5. Based on the lunar sample management rules released by the CNSA and the experience in dealing with the applications for lunar samples collected by the Chang'e-5 mission, applications for the Chang'e-6 samples are expected to open to domestic research institutions and scientists in about six months, Ge said. | |||||||
advertisement