Historic journey from Chang'e 6 lifts off

The Chang'e 6, the world's first attempt to retrieve substances from the moon's far side, embarked on its historic journey on Friday afternoon from China's southernmost province of Hainan.

Carrying the 8.35-metric-ton Chang'e 6, a Long March 5 heavy-lift carrier rocket, the biggest and mightiest space vehicle in China, lifted its 20-story-tall, 870-ton body and soared skyward with dazzling silver flame at 5:27 pm from its launch pad, leaving hundreds of thousands of spectators at and around the coastal Wenchang Space Launch Center in awe and excitement as the gigantic booster thundered up.

The liftoff marked the beginning of the country's second lunar sample-return expedition, after the success of Chang'e 5 in the winter of 2020.