The first-ever samples from the far side of the moon have been obtained by China's Chang'e-6 lunar probe upon its return.

• The Chang'e-6 lunar probe from China landed back on Earth on Tuesday, marking the first time that samples have been retrieved from the far side of the moon.
• The probe will be transported to Beijing and its cabin will be opened to remove the sample container.
• India's Chandrayaan-3 mission safely landed on the moon's unexplored south pole in August last year, and the return of Chang'e-6 is expected to occur within months.

The Chang'e-6 lunar probe from China landed back on Earth on Tuesday, marking the first time that samples from the uncharted far side of the moon have been retrieved.

The re-entry capsule landed in Inner Mongolia at 2:07 p.m. local time, declaring the mission a "complete success," according to a Google-translated update from the CNSA.

The soil collected from the South Pole-Aitken Basin by Chang'e-6 has been returned to Earth.

The Chang'e-6 mission, which launched from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in Hainan on May 3, spent 53 days in space. During this time, the probe landed on the moon on June 2, took off again on June 4, and orbited the moon for 13 days before returning to Earth.

The probe will be transported to Beijing and its cabin will be opened to remove the sample container.

The return of Chang'e-6 is expected to occur within months of India's successful landing of Chandrayaan-3 on the moon's south pole in August 2020. The "dark side" of the moon, which is always hidden from Earth due to its tidal locking and takes the same amount of time to rotate as it does to orbit Earth, has long fascinated scientists and explorers alike. The far side of the moon was first photographed in 1959 by the Soviet Luna 3 spacecraft.

The CNSA received congratulations from Chinese President Xi Jinping for another landmark achievement in building a space power and a scientific and technological power, as stated in a Google translation of the leader's message shared by the space institute.

In 2020, Chang'e-5, the predecessor of Chang'e-6, returned to Earth after successfully unfurling the first Chinese national flag on the moon. Its mission was to gather approximately 2kg of lunar regolith. This achievement made China the third country, following the U.S. and Soviet Union, to accomplish lunar sampling at the time. However, the specifics of what it brought back are not yet known.

China's plans to land an astronaut-crewed mission by 2030 have expanded beyond Beijing.

Space programs have long been markers of international esteem, culminating in the 20th century competition between Cold War adversaries the U.S. and Soviet Union to advance and perfect space travel capabilities. Washington achieved a pivotal triumph when astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first individual to tread on the moon in July 1969.

Despite the substantial public interest and expenditure on space programs, NASA has had to tighten its budget requests.