LUME GRAVITY Reach

REACH / CHINA NATIONAL SPACE ADMINISTRATION

Chang’e—6

China’s robotic mission brought the first samples from the Moon’s far side to Earth in 2024. Follow their journey home and discover what they can tell us.

Explore the mission

Original LUME Gravity artistic interpretation
Not mission imagery or a mapped view of the landing site

01 / THE QUESTION

Why go to the other side?

The Moon keeps the same face turned toward Earth. Its far side has a different geological story, yet every earlier returned lunar sample came from the near side. Chang’e-6 crossed that gap.

Its lander collected material in the Apollo basin, within the vast South Pole–Aitken impact basin. The mission returned 1,935.3 grams of lunar material: the first samples brought to Earth from this hemisphere.

CNSA · sample handover

02 / THE HIDDEN CONNECTION

The far side
cannot see Earth.

Queqiao-2 provided the communications relay. The samples then made a second journey: surface → lunar orbit → Earth.

01Far-side surfaceLANDER · DRILL · ROBOTIC ARM
02Lunar orbitASCENDER · RENDEZVOUS
03EarthRETURN CAPSULE · SAMPLES

03 / FOUR MOMENTS

A short flight log.

01

Departure

Chang’e-6 launched toward the Moon.

02

Far-side landing

The lander reached the South Pole–Aitken basin, with Queqiao-2 relaying communications to Earth.

03

The hand-off

An ascender lifted the samples from the surface, docked in lunar orbit and transferred them to the returner.

04

Earth return

The return capsule landed with the first samples collected from the lunar far side.

Full mission timeline · CNSA

04 / WHAT THE SAMPLES CAN TELL US

Dating rocks from
the far side.

Scientists can compare laboratory ages of far-side rocks with the number of craters around their collection site. A 2026 study used Chang’e-6 samples to test how crater counts translate into age across both lunar hemispheres.

Read the research note · Chinese Academy of Sciences

SEE THE ORIGINAL RECORD

From the source.

Mission images and reports remain with their publishers. These links open the original material and its context.

CNSAMission timeline and imageryESA / CNSA · ORIGINAL IMAGEThe far side seen by Chang’e-6NASA / LROThe lander seen from lunar orbit

GET TO KNOW THE MISSION

Curious about Chang’e-6?

What was China’s Chang’e-6 mission?

A robotic lunar mission that collected rock and soil on the Moon’s far side and brought them to Earth in June 2024. It was the first mission to return samples from that hemisphere.

Is the far side always dark?

No. It receives sunlight, just like the near side. It is called the far side because the Moon keeps that hemisphere turned away from Earth.

How did the spacecraft communicate with Earth?

A relay satellite, Queqiao-2, carried communications between the lander and Earth because the Moon itself blocked a direct radio connection.

Why bring lunar samples home?

Laboratories can measure their ages and composition with instruments that cannot all fit on a spacecraft. The samples help researchers compare the geological histories of the Moon’s two sides.

Read the official explanations: CNSA mission timeline ↗ · CNSA sample return ↗