China has become first nation ever to successfully land spacecraft on far side of moon. The official China Central Television station announced that lunar explorer spaceship, Chang'e 4, touched down at 10:26am on Thursday. Professor Zhu Menghua, from Macau University of Science and Technology, said success of mission was major milestone for China and established the nation as pioneer in space exploration. He told the New York Times: "We Chinese people have done something that the Americans have not dared try." Sun Zezhou, chief designer of Chang'e-4, said: "Landing on the far side of the moon is more risky than landing on near side."
The Chang'e-4 probe started sending photographs back to Earth soon after it landed on moon's surface. The China National Space Administration said the mission had, "lifted mysterious veil" from far side of the moon and "opened new chapter in human lunar exploration". Sun Zezhou told reporters about significance of the program. He said it would, "help lay the foundation for future space exploration." He added: " high-precision landing is necessity for further exploring the moon and asteroids. We hope to be able to reach whole moon and even whole solar system." China also has plans to launch returnable spacecraft (Chang'e 5) by 2020.
