China’s Chang’e-6 moon mission returns to Earth with historic lunar far side cargo

Re-entry capsule touches down safely in Inner Mongolia with the first samples ever retrieved from the moon’s rough, mysterious side

Reading Time:4 minutes

The Chang’e-6 module landed safely in the grasslands of China’s Inner Mongolia region on Tuesday at 2.07pm Beijing time. Photo: Xinhua

Ling Xinin OhioandVictoria Belain Hong Kong

Published: 2:07pm, 25 Jun 2024Updated: 5:02pm, 25 Jun 2024

Chinese President Xi Jinping hailed the Chang’e-6 lunar mission’s historic achievement after the first rock samples collected from the moon’s far side landed on Earth at 2.07pm Beijing time on Tuesday.

“Your outstanding contributions will be forever remembered by the motherland and the people,” he said in a written address to the team, shortly after the re-entry capsule touched down in the Siziwang Banner grasslands of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region.

The re-entry and landing procedure started at around 1.20pm when mission controllers uploaded high-precision navigation data to the orbiter-re-entry capsule combination, after which the capsule unlocked and separated around 5,000km (3,110 miles) above the southern Atlantic Ocean.

The re-entry module entered the Earth’s atmosphere 120km (around 75 miles) above the ground at a speed of 11.2km (7 miles per second), with its precious cargo of up to 2kg (4.4lbs) of material scooped and drilled from the moon’s most ancient basin, according to the China National Space Administration (CNSA).

The parachute deployed as the module reached the last 10km (6 miles) of its descent and landed smoothly at its predetermined destination, with recovery personnel arriving shortly after in helicopters and ground vehicles.

CNSA director Zhang Kejian said the Chang’e-6 mission “has achieved complete success”.