Chang 'e-6 completes lunar orbit docking

China's Chang 'e-6 spacecraft completed a rendezvous and docking in lunar orbit Thursday, becoming the second Chinese spacecraft to do so after Chang 'e-5.

According to the wechat public account "China's Space" news, the Chang 'e-6 ascending vehicle completed the lunar orbit docking with the orbiter and the returner combination at 2 PM on Thursday (June 6), and the lunar sample container was safely transferred to the returner at 3 PM.

Since Chang 'e-6 ascender took off from the far side of the moon on Tuesday (4) and entered the orbit around the moon, it has made four orbit adjustments. When the ascender was about 50 kilometers in front of the orbiter and about 10 kilometers above the orbiter and the returnee assembly, the orbiter and the returnee assembly gradually approached the ascender through short-range autonomous control, completing the orbital rendezvous.

Next, the Chang 'e-6 orbiter and the returner assembly will separate from the ascender and enter the waiting stage around the moon to prepare for the implementation of the moon to Earth transfer orbit control, after the key steps such as the moon to Earth transfer, the separation of the orbiter and the returner, the returner will carry lunar samples to land at the Siziwang Banner space landing site in Inner Mongolia.

Chang 'e-6 successfully completed sampling from the far side of the moon on Tuesday. The move is a world first and a major achievement for China's space program.

Earlier, Chang 'e-6 landed in the South Pole of the moon's far side - Aitken Basin early last Sunday (June 2) to conduct intelligent rapid sampling and store the lunar far side sample package in the storage device carried by the ascender. This is the second time China has landed on the far side of the moon, after Chang 'e-4 in 2019. Before China, no other country had ever landed on the far side of the moon.

China aims to send astronauts to the moon by 2030 and plans to establish a base there.