The announcement came as China marked its 11th Space Day, with officials using the occasion to review the achievements of the Chang'e program and outline the road ahead for Chinese and international lunar exploration.
The Chang'e program has accumulated a series of firsts over the past decade. Chang'e 4 achieved the world's first soft landing on the far side of the moon in 2019, setting down in the South Pole-Aitken Basin - the oldest and largest confirmed impact crater in the solar system, with a diameter of 2,500 kilometers and a depth of roughly 13 kilometers. Chang'e 5 returned 1,731 grams of lunar samples from Oceanus Procellarum in 2020, the first relatively young lunar material ever collected, filling a significant gap in the chronology of lunar geological history. Chang'e 6 followed in 2024, landing in the Apollo Basin on the far side and returning 1,935.3 grams of samples - the first material ever retrieved from the lunar far side.
Scientific analysis of the returned samples has produced results with broad implications. Precise dating of basalt from the Chang'e 5 collection extended the known history of lunar volcanic activity by approximately 800 million years. Material from Chang'e 6 is providing direct physical evidence bearing on the geological asymmetry between the near and far sides of the moon, a long-standing puzzle in planetary science.
China has made samples available to international researchers. In November 2023, the China National Space Administration launched a formal borrowing process and received 24 applications from 11 countries and international organizations. Seven institutions from six countries - France, Germany, Japan, Pakistan, the United Kingdom and the United States - were approved and granted access to Chang'e 5 material for scientific study.
Beyond the samples themselves, the Chang'e program has driven advances in deep space operations and communications. To support missions on the far side of the moon, China developed and launched the Queqiao relay satellites. Queqiao 1 entered a halo orbit around the Earth-moon Lagrange point 2 in 2018, becoming the first relay satellite to operate at that location. The relay approach was later adapted for China's Mars program, with the Tianwen 1 orbiter providing communication services for the Zhurong rover during surface operations in 2021.
The Chang'e program has also accumulated practical experience operating at Lagrange points. In 2021, after completing its primary mission, the Chang'e 5 orbiter was repositioned to the sun-Earth Lagrange point 1, demonstrating station-keeping techniques that will support future deep space missions including solar observation.
International cooperation has been a consistent feature of the program. Chang'e 4 carried payloads from the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden and Saudi Arabia. Chang'e 6 flew instruments from France, Italy, Pakistan and the European Space Agency. Chang'e 7 is planned to carry six payloads from seven countries and organizations, including Egypt, Bahrain, Italy, Russia, Switzerland, Thailand and the International Lunar Observatory Association.
Chang'e 8, currently targeted for launch around 2029, will carry payloads from 11 countries and regions and one international organization, with contributing institutions spanning Asia, Europe, Africa and South America.
Both Chang'e 7 and Chang'e 8 are designated as foundational components of the International Lunar Research Station, a planned scientific facility spanning the lunar surface, lunar orbit and supporting infrastructure on Earth. A total of 17 countries and international organizations, along with more than 50 research institutions, have joined the project.
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