Not So Dark Anymore: Chinese Rover Makes First-Ever Landing On Far Side Of The Moon At South Pole-Aitken Basin

Chinese spacecraft, Chang’e 4 made a historic touchdown on the far side of the moon on Thursday (3 January 2019), becoming the first man-made machine to do so, reports The Guardian.

China National Space Administration (CNSA), the country’s space agency, noted that the rover successfully landed in the unexplored South Pole-Aitken basin, which is the largest, oldest and deepest crater on moon’s surface. The lander and rover made a touchdown at 7.56 am IST.

A tweet from China Daily said: “China’s Chang’e 4 landed on the moon’s far side, inaugurating a new chapter in mankind’s lunar exploration history.” Global Times, China’s national English daily, tweeted the following.

“There’s a lot of geopolitics or astropolitics about this, it’s not just a scientific mission, this is all about China’s rise as a superpower. There’s a lot of enthusiasm for the space program in China. There’s a lot of nationalism in China, they see China’s role in space as a key part of their rise,” said Malcolm Davis, senior analyst with Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

“It is highly likely that with the success of Chang’e — and the concurrent success of the human spaceflight Shenzhou program — the two programs will eventually be combined toward a Chinese human spaceflight program to the Moon. Odds of the next voice transmission from the Moon being in Mandarin are high,” told US Naval War College professor, Joan Johnson-Freese, Gizmodo.

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