China releases photos from first-ever mission to land on the dark side of the moon

China National Space Administration

An image taken on the far side of the moon by China's Chang'e 4 lunar explorer.

• China's space agency shared images of the dark side of the moon from its Chang'e 4 lunar probe's historic landing on Thursday.
• China is the first nation to land on the moon's far side, a major step in its ambitions to compete with the US and Russia in space exploration.
• The images are close-ups of the moon's dark side, showing its cratered surface.

China released photos of the dark side of the moon from its successful mission to become the first country to land a spacecraft on the moon's far side.

Photos shared by China's National Space Administration (CNSA) show close-ups of the lunar surface captured in what was both a first in history and a win for China in its efforts to compete with the US and Russia in space exploration.

The images were captured by cameras on China's Chang'e 4 lunar probe, which landed on the moon at 10:26 a.m. on January 3, according to CNSA.

This image was taken on the south side of the landing site, CNSA said.

China's National Space Administration

China's Change'4 captured a close-up photo of the dark side of the moon.

CNSA also shared an image of the moon's surface after the landing.

China's National Space Administration

This image was taken after the landing of the lunar probe.

China became the third country in the world to "soft-land" - land without damage - on the moon in 2013. But it has now become the first country to land on its dark side - a big step in President Xi Jinping's aims to make China a powerhouse of space exploration.

The soft landing is different from an "impact" - where an object smashes into the surface at speed. The first man-made object to hit the dark side of the moon was NASA's Ranger 4 craft in 1964, which crashed after a system failure.

Although the region is called the dark side of the moon, it is not actually deprived of light. It is called "dark" because humans know much less about it than the "light" side that faces earth.

The Chang'e 4's objective is to learn more about this part of the moon, including studying its mineral composition and the structure of its surface, CNSA said.

The agency also said that the reduced radio signals from earth would allow scientists to study the sun, other planets, and the origin of stars.