When the Chang’e-4 mission landed in the Von Karman crater on January 3, 2019, China became the first and only country to land on the far side of the moon — the side that always faces away from Earth.

The first-of-its-kind mission aims to bring back samples from the far side of the moon and is the latest step in a rapidly advancing Chinese space program.

China hopes to return samples from the far side of the moon in a mission that started Friday with the unmanned rocket launch from the Wenchang Space Launch Center. The Chang'e-6 probe will land on the dark side of the moon -- the portion that is away from the view of the Earth -- to collect samples and return them to Earth during the 53-day mission.