June 4 (UPI) -- China's space agency said its Chang'e-6 mission lifted off from the far side of the moon on Tuesday, as it begins its journey transporting samples and moon rocks back to Earth.
The probe's ascender lifted off from the moon's surface at 7:38 a.m., Beijing time, according to China's National Space Administration, which said in a statement that about six minutes later its engines successfully put the ascender into its predetermined lunar orbit.