China’s Chang'e 6 Lunar Probe mission

Recently, China launched a Chang’e-6 Lunar Probe mission to collect samples for the First Time from the far side of the Moon.

This marks the first such mission in human lunar exploration history, according to the China National Space Administration (CNSA).
The Long March-5 Y8 rocket carried the lunar probe, which lifted off from the Wenchang Space Launch Site in China’s Hainan province.
The CNSA anticipates breakthroughs in key technologies, including automatic sample collection and take-off from the moon’s far side.
Additionally, the probe will conduct scientific exploration at the landing site.
The lander will host scientific instruments from France, Italy, and the European Space Agency/Sweden while a Pakistani payload will be aboard the orbiter.
China has previously achieved milestones such as unmanned moon missions with rover landings and Mars rover deployments.
China is also planning a manned lunar landing by 2030.

Since 2007, China’s space program has been actively engaging in lunar exploration with a series of missions that include orbiters, landers, rovers, and spacecraft designed to return samples to Earth.
Chang’e 1 & 2 (2007 onwards): Launched orbiters to map the lunar surface with high-resolution imagery.
Chang’e 3 (2013): Deployed the Yutu rover to explore 3 sq. km of the moon over 90 Earth days, analyzing the elemental composition and subsurface.
Chang’e 4 (2018): Focused on the moon’s southern shadowed regions, landing in the Von Karman crater to study the far side’s surface composition with advanced instruments.
Chang’e 5 (2020): Aimed to return lunar regolith samples to Earth, successfully bringing back 1.731 kg of material.

Mission aims to retrieve samples from the moon’s far side for scientific analysis on Earth.
The mission architecture is similar to that of China’s first-ever lunar sample-return mission, Chang’e 5.
It comprises an orbiter, a lander, an ascender, and a re-entry module, as reported by China Daily.
After collecting lunar dust and rocks, the ascender will transport samples to the orbiter for transfer to the re-entry module, which will bring them back to Earth.

NASA-led Artemis II, the first crewed mission around the Moon is scheduled to launch in September 2025.
Artemis III, planned to land astronauts near the lunar South Pole, for September 2026.
Artemis IV, the first mission to the Gateway lunar space station, remains set for 2028.
India’s next lunar mission, Chandrayaan-4, also known as LUPEX, is set to launch in 2028, in collaboration with Japan.
LUPEX will pave the way for India’s ambitious lunar sample return mission.
Furthermore, ISRO aims to send Indian astronauts to the moon by 2024.