China’s Chang’e-6 spacecraft lands on the far side of the moon

China on Sunday landed a spacecraft on the far side of the moon for a mission whose purpose is to recover rocks and soil from the lunar surface, the Chinese space agency said.

The landing boosts China’s space power position in the global race to the Moon, in which many countries, including the United States, hope to exploit lunar minerals to sustain long-duration space missions and lunar bases.

The Chang’e-6 spacecraft successfully landed in the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the far side of the moon at 6:23 Beijing time (2223 GMT), China’s National Space Administration (ANEC) said in a statement on its website.

“The Chang’e-6 mission is the first human sample from the far side of the Moon and the return mission. It involves many engineering innovations, high risks and great difficulties,” ANEC said.

“The payloads carried by the Chang’e-6 lander will perform as intended and carry out scientific research missions,” ANEC said.

This is China’s second mission to the far reaches of the moon, a region where no country has landed before. The far side of the Moon is always away from Earth, making communication difficult.

The Chang’e-6 probe landed a month after it was launched by a Chinese Long March-5 rocket from the Wenchang Space Launch Center on the southern island of Hainan.