January 3rd was a very special day. China became the first country to successfully land a spacecraft on the dark side of the moon. After taking off on December 8th, 2018, the Chang’e 4 spent 28 days in space before landing on the Von Kármán crater. Both the rover and the lander are equipped with instruments that will help them understand the geology of the moon and explore it’s surface.
On Friday, they released photos taken by Chang’e 4.
Check out world’s first panorama of the Moon’s far side pic.twitter.com/lErzLRIIZ7
— China Xinhua News (@XHNews) January 11, 2019
They also shared mesmerizing footage of the spacecraft touching down:
Stunning footage of far side of moon, captured by China’s Chang’e-4 probe during its landing. #ChangE4 pic.twitter.com/e1xvyjEcml
— China Xinhua News (@XHNews) January 11, 2019
If this doesn’t make you want to listen to Pink Floyd, I don’t know what will.
“There is no dark side of the moon, really. Matter of fact, it’s all dark”
