NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spotted China’s Chang’e 6 lunar lander on the moon’s far side within the Apollo basin on June 7, 2024, 5 days after it landed.
An image from the LRO camera shows the lander as a small cluster of bright pixels in the center of the image, surrounded by two similar sized craters and the edge of a 50m wide crater.
The landing site is located in a basaltic lava region called a “mare” near the southern edge of the Apollo basin, between two wrinkle ridges formed by faulting around 3 billion years ago.
Chang’e 6 aims to be the first mission to return lunar samples from the far side directly to Earth, having launched on May 3. It completed sample collection and ascended from the surface on June 3.
The return capsule is expected to land back on Earth on June 25 in Inner Mongolia, China, concluding the 53-day mission. The images from LRO provide the first view of Chang’e 6 on the lunar surface since its landing.
Source: Space
