China returns first lunar samples from Moon's far side

• The samples, taken by China's Chang'e 6 robotic lunar explorer from the Apollo basin — an enormous impact crater in the Moon's southern hemisphere — may help scientists understand how Earth's nearest neighbor formed roughly 4.5 billion years ago.

Context: Chang'e 6 launched aboard a Long March 5 booster from Wenchang Satellite Launch Center in May and landed within the basin on June 1.

• The explorer harvested samples with a scoop and drill from as deep as 2 meters below the lunar surface before linking with a return vehicle that shuttled the rocks and soil to Earth.
• The mission lasted 53 days.

The big picture: The mission comes after China's Chang'e 4 in 2019 completed the first landing in the hemisphere of the Moon facing away from Earth.

• Chang'e 5 carried out the nation's first lunar sample return mission in 2020.
• The U.S. and China are racing to be the first to establish a foothold on the Moon. Both countries set to attempt crewed lunar landings before the end of the decade.

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