World's first achieved after samples return from mysterious far side of the Moon

Spaceflight history has been made after samples from the dark side of the Moon landed back on Earth, marking a massive milestone for global space exploration.

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Chang'e 6 lander

The honors of the achievement have been earned by the China National Space Agency (CNSA) with its Chang'e mission, which returned the samples back to Earth's surface on Tuesday at 2:07 am EDT. The far side of the Moon samples touched down in China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and consists of approximately 4.4 pounds of lunar material that was acquired by the CNSA's Chang'e 6 lander located on the far side of the Moon.

The journey back to Earth began around June 21, and while space agencies in the past have returned lunar samples back to Earth, none have been from the far side of the Moon. Earth's closest neighbor is tidally locked to the planet, meaning only one side of the Moon is facing Earth, while the other is in perpetual darkness. With the darkness due to a lack of sunlight comes extremely cold temperatures and other challenges that make its exploration more difficult than the Earth-facing side.

Additionally, exploration on the dark side of the Moon means a satellite relay system needs to be in place, as communications can't pass directly through the surface of the Earth-facing side to the lander stationed on the far side. Due to these complications, the far side of the Moon has hardly been studied, which makes these now safely returned samples just that much more valuable to researchers.