According to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV, the Chang'e-6 spacecraft landed at 2:07 p.m. Beijing time, carrying lunar soil collected by the probe earlier this month after successfully landing in the Aitken Basin - the moon's south pole, an impact crater on the side of the moon that always faces away from Earth.

Immediately after the spacecraft landed, Zhang Kejian, head of the China National Space Administration, announced the successful completion of the Chang'e-6 lunar mission. Chinese President Xi Jinping said the completion of the mission was a "landmark achievement" in China's efforts to become a science and space power.

The Chang'e-6 probe was launched on May 3 on a Long March rocket from the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on the southern island of Hainan. According to CCTV, 2kg of lunar samples will be airlifted to Beijing for analysis.

The samples will be closely analyzed by Chinese and foreign scientists, who believe they will reveal new details about the formation of the Earth, the Moon and the solar system.

Samples from the Chang'e-5 mission, which brought back lunar samples from the near side, have helped discover new minerals and a more precise range of the Moon's geological age.

The success of the Chang'e-6 mission could give China's space and lunar exploration program, which is in close competition with the US, more appeal to foreign governments and scientists.

European space agencies and scientists are working closely with Chinese counterparts on data and samples collected by China's lunar missions.

"We know that the far side of the Moon is actually a different place, it's made of different materials than the near side of the Moon, it has a different history... getting these samples is really of fundamental scientific importance," said Neil Melville-Kenney, a technical officer at the European Space Agency (ESA).

The engineer added that ESA will meet with the China National Space Administration in October to discuss further collaboration. “The collaboration we have now (with China) is a small step, it started quite a while ago, maybe the situation was a little different then. In the future, I hope there will be more collaboration,” he said.

Hoai Phuong (according to CCTV, Reuters)