Chang'e 6 mission successfully achieves lunar orbit

The Chang'e 6 probe has successfully entered lunar orbit, the China National Space Administration confirmed. The spacecraft executed a critical braking maneuver under the guidance of experts at the Beijing Aerospace Control Center and achieved lunar orbit at 10:12 am on Wednesday.

This operation was essential to slow the probe, which weighed 8.35 metric tons and had traveled nearly 113 hours on an Earth-moon transfer trajectory. The maneuver ensured the spacecraft could be captured by the moon's gravity rather than overshooting it.

Chang'e 6's mission marks the first time a probe will attempt to return samples from the moon's far side. The probe, launched by a Long March 5 rocket from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in Hainan, represents a significant step forward in lunar exploration. Historically, the 10 previous lunar sample-return missions by the United States, the former Soviet Union, and China, have only retrieved samples from the near side of the moon.

The spacecraft, developed by the Beijing-based China Academy of Space Technology, includes an orbiter, a lander, an ascender, and a reentry capsule. After entering orbit, the probe will prepare for its next phase: descending to the lunar surface in the South Pole-Aitken Basin, the moon's largest and deepest basin. The lander-ascender will collect up to 2 kilograms of lunar material using a drill and mechanical arm.

Once sample collection is completed, the ascender will dock with the orbiter and reentry capsule for the return journey to Earth, concluding with a landing in Inner Mongolia.

Despite the mission's progress, uncertainties about the precise landing site and lunar surface conditions persist. "No one can be certain about the specific landing destination," said Wang Yanan, chief editor of Aerospace Knowledge magazine. "We don't know about its detailed landscape, or how many big rocks and impact craters there are."