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The Chang-e 6 spacecraft touched down on the far side of the Moon on Sunday, continuing China's intense space race with the United States.
Chang-e 6 is the second Chinese spacecraft designed to bring back samples from the surface of the Moon, following Chang-e 5, which collected samples from the near side. It touched down in the South Pole-Aitken Basin at 6:23 am Beijing time, which is the largest, oldest, and deepest impact crater on the Moon at about 1,600 miles wide and 3.9 to 5.1 miles deep.
The spacecraft aims to collect dust and rocks from the surface to help scientists back at the China National Space Administration (CNSA) to learn more about the far side of the Moon. It will do this by using a drill to amass about two pounds of material over about two days, and it will then transfer the samples to another module, which will return to China by June 25. Researchers back at CNSA are also eager to compare the latest data with the data from Chang-e 5 to figure out the differences between dust and rocks on the near side and dust and rocks on the far side, which will be interesting to see.
This landing will help fuel their rapidly advancing space program, which is hoping to put a person on the Moon by 2030. That would make China the second-ever country to put a person on the Moon, and Japan and India are also making large gains. The United States is also very much involved in this space race, though-- the current leader in space exploration has announced its plans to send another person to the Moon by 2026.
However, this landing comes just after a big blow for NASA recently. Boeing's Starliner spacecraft, sitting aboard an Atlas V rocket, was scheduled for launch on Saturday when the computer canceled the launch due to a mechanical issue with just 3 minutes and 50 seconds to go on the countdown timer. The Starliner was carrying two astronauts and was expected to reach the International Space Station within 24 hours of takeoff, but an alarm was tripped by the computer, meaning that something had gone wrong. The next available window is on June 6, and Boeing will be hoping to get the rocket up and running as soon as possible.
NASA has a $4.2 billion contract with Boeing, and the aerospace company is competing with Elon Musk's SpaceX to become NASA's go-to private company for rocket launches. However, both companies have been struggling lately with various issues across different launches, meaning that the last time NASA had a proper launch was on January 14, 2023, with SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket.
Fact of the Day (Reader's Digest): The longest ever jump by a human was 8.95 meters by Mike Powell in 1991, while the longest ever jump by a horse was 6.10 meters by Extra Dry in 1900. That means that the longest ever human jump was over 2.85 meters longer than the longest ever horse jump!
Quote of the Day (Gracious Quotes): Happiness is a mood. Positivity is a mindset. (Unknown)
Word of the Day (Merriam-Webster): Svelte (adj) - Someone described as svelte is considered slender or thin in an attractive or graceful way. Svelte can also be used to describe something sleek, such as a vehicle or an article of clothing.
In a Sentence: The svelte dancer seemed to float across the stage.
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