In a giant leap for space exploration, China’s Chang’e 4 became the world’s first spacecraft to make a soft landing on the far side of the moon and send photos.

The lunar explorer probe, comprising a lander and a rover, touched down at a pre-selected area on January 3, China National Space Administration (CNSA) said. It landed on the Von Karman crater in the South Pole-Aitken basin and then sent back a picture of the landing site shot by one of the monitor cameras on the probe’s lander, marking the world’s first image taken on the moon’s far side.

Though the far side has been extensively photographed by spacecraft, starting with a Soviet probe in 1959, no probe had ever made a soft landing onto it. So, scientists had not been able to conduct close observations and surveys of the region for decades.

Tidal forces slow the moon’s rotation to the point where the same side always faces the Earth. The other face, most of which cannot be seen from Earth, is called the far side or “dark side” of the moon, not because it is dark, but because most of it is uncharted.

The probe was launched by a Long March-3B carrier rocket on December 8 from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in Sichuan province. Direct communication with the far side of the moon, however, is not possible, which is one of the many challenges for the Chang’e 4 lunar probe mission. China launched a relay satellite, named Queqiao, in May, to set up a communication link between Earth and the Chang’e 4 lunar probe.

The scientific tasks of the Chang’e 4 mission include low-frequency radio astronomical observation, surveying the terrain and landforms, detecting the mineral composition and shallow lunar surface structure, and measuring the neutron radiation and neutral atoms to study the environment on the far side of the moon, according to CNSA.

Chang’e 4 mission has four scientific payloads developed by scientists from the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden and Saudi Arabia.

Chang’e 4 is the fourth lunar probe launched by China since the country’s lunar programme began in 2004.

Named after the goddess of the moon in Chinese legends, the first Chang’e spacecraft was launched in 2007 to verify China’s lunar probe technology, obtain lunar images and perform scientific surveys.

Chang’e 2 followed in 2010 to carry out high-definition imaging of the moon and investigate landing conditions for Chang’e 3.

Chang’e 3 landed on the moon in 2013. It released the first Chinese lunar rover, Yutu, on the moon. It worked there for around 1,000 days.

Beijing is planning to send another lunar lander, Chang’e 5, next year to collect samples and bring them back to Earth.

China aims to catch up with Russia and the US to become a major space power by 2030. It is planning to launch the construction of its own manned space station next year.