China lunar probe sheds light on ‘dark’ side of moon
Landing highlights country’s ambitions to rival other nations
BEIJING— China’s burgeoning space program achieved a lunar milestone on Thursday: landing a probe on the mysterious and misnamed “dark” side of the moon.
Exploring the cosmos from that far side of the moon, which people can’t see from Earth, could eventually help scientists learn more about the early days of the solar system and maybe even the birth of the universe’s first stars.
Three nations — the United States, the former Soviet Union and more recently, China — all have sent spacecraft to the side of the moon that faces Earth, but this landing is the first on the far side. That side has been observed many times from lunar orbit, but never up close.
The China National Space Administration said the10:26 a.m. touchdown of the Chang’e 4 craft has “opened up a new chapter in human lunar exploration.”
A photo taken at 11:40 a.m. and sent back by Chang’e 4 shows a small crater and a barren surface that appears to be illuminated by a light from the lunar explorer. Its name comes from that of a Chinese goddess who, according to leg- end, has lived on the moon for millennia.
One challenge of sending a probe to the moon’s far side is communicating with it from Earth, so China launched a relay satellite in May to enable Chang’e 4 to send back information.
The mission highlights China’s ambitions to rival the U.S., Russia and Europe in space and, more broadly, to cement its position as a regional and global power.
“The space dream is part of the dream to make China stronger,” President Xi Jinping said after becoming the country’s leader in 2013.
Chinese media and officials hailed the Dec. 8 launch of Chang’e 4 as one of the nation’s major achievements in 2018.
The public was kept in suspense about the landing itself for more than an hour after it occurred, with state broadcaster CCTV announcing it at the top of the noon news. By that time, speculation already had begun spreading on social media in China and overseas.
“On the whole, China’s space technology still lags behind the West, but with the landing on the far side of the moon, we have raced to the front,” said Hou Xiyun, a professor at Nanjing University’s school of astronomy and space science.
He added that China has Mars, Jupiter and asteroids in its sights: “There’s no doubt that our nation will go farther and farther.”