Watch live: China will launch the Chang’e 6 mission to the far side of the moon early May 3 (video)

On May 2, 2024By Vaseline

China will launch its next robotic moon mission on Friday (May 3), and you can watch the action live.

A Long March 5 rocket carrying the Chang’e 6 sample return mission to the moon on the other side is expected to launch between 5:17 a.m. EDT (0917 GMT) and 6:18 a.m. EDT (1018 GMT) on Friday. The mission will launch from China’s Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on the tropical island province of Hainan, off the southeastern coast of mainland China.

You can watch the action live here when it happens, courtesy of CCTV+. The live webcast begins May 3 at 4:30 AM ET (0830 GMT).

Related: China will launch a sample return mission to the far side of the moon on May 3

a large white rocket attached to a mobile tower rolls down a road surrounded by palm trees

The Chang’e 6 lunar probe and its Long March 5 rocket will be vertically transferred to the launch area of the Wenchang Space Launch Center in Wenchang, Hainan Province, China on April 27, 2024. (Image credit: Luo Yunfei/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images)

Chang’e 6 will involve four different pieces of hardware during the 53-day mission: a lunar orbiter, a lunar lander, an ascent spacecraft, and a reentry module. First, the lunar orbiter will reach and enter lunar orbit. From there it will send the lander down.

The robot lander will aim for a large impact crater on the far side of the moon, known as the Apollo Basin, where it will attempt to collect up to 2 kilograms of lunar material.

After the samples are collected, they will be transferred to the ascent vehicle, which will then launch them back to the orbiter. After the samples are connected to the orbiter, the spacecraft begins its journey back to Earth.

Finally, the orbiter will release the samples to Earth in the reentry module. If successfully returned and collected, the samples will provide Earth’s first glimpse of pristine lunar material from the far side of the moon and will help answer questions about both the solar system’s early impact history and its geological evolution of the moon.

a large white rocket stands upright on a launch tower surrounded by red flags with yellow Chinese characters

The Long March 5 rocket carrying the hardware for the Chang’e 6 moon mission on the other side is vertically transferred to the launch area at the Wenchang Space Launch Center on April 27, 2024 in Wenchang, Hainan Province, China. (Image credit: VCG/VCG via Getty Images)

The leadership of the Chinese space agency is already praising the degree of complexity of the mission.

“Chang’e 6 aims to make breakthroughs in the design and control technology of the moon’s retrograde orbit, intelligent sampling, take-off and ascent technologies, and automatic sample return on the far side of the moon,” said Ge Ping, deputy director of the Center for Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering for the China National Space Administration, told China Central Television (CCTV).

In support of the Chang’e 6 mission, China launched the Queqiao-2 satellite in March 2024 that would serve as a communications relay for the spacecraft visiting the far side of the moon. The ride included two other experimental satellites that will serve as communications and navigation relays for future lunar efforts. The two have already beamed terrifying moon images back to Earth.