First probe lands on moon's 'dark' side

Breakthrough opens new page in history of space exploration

A new chapter opened in mankind's exploration of the moon on Thursday morning as the first probe to land on the moon's far side reached its destination after a 26-day journey.

The Chang'e 4 lunar probe, representing China's latest step in lunar investigation, landed at 10:26 am at the Von Karman crater in the South Pole-Aitken basin and then sent back three photos of the landing site shot by cameras on the probe's lander, marking the world's first images taken on the surface of the far side.