Chang'e 6 lifts off with samples collected from lunar far side

After a host of sophisticated maneuvers, the Chang'e 6 lander touched down on the far side on Sunday morning and soon started using a scoop to grab surface regolith and a drill for subsurface material.

At the same time, several mission payloads, including a panoramic camera, a lunar mineralogical spectrometer and a lunar soil composition analytical instrument, were activated for operation on the moon. The results of their survey will play significant roles in the measurement and study of the moon's landscapes, mineral compositions as well as shallow structures, according to the space administration.

Moreover, three European scientific apparatus carried by the Chang'e 6 landing craft — a radon-measuring instrument from France's national space agency, a dedicated negative ion instrument developed by the Swedish Institute of Space Physics with support from the European Space Agency, and a passive laser retroreflector from Italy's National Institute for Nuclear Physics — worked on the lunar surface over the past two days, said the space administration.

After the surface collection task finished, a Chinese national flag was unfolded on the lander, becoming the first national flag of any nation to be shown on the lunar far side.