First samples ever collected from ‘far side’ of the moon make it back to earth

China’s lunar probe has returned to Earth, making the country the first to bring back samples from the moon’s far side. The re-entry capsule of the Chang’e probe touched down in the northern Chinese region of Inner Mongolia at about 2pm Beijing time (7am UK time), carrying lunar soil collected earlier in June. At the start of the month, the probe had successfully landed at the moon’s South Pole, in the Aitken Basin, a gigantic impact crater that always faces away from Earth. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player 0:55 Chang’e-6’s mission was programmed to collect…