Chang'e 6 returns with precious lunar samples

China's Chang'e 6 robotic mission finished successfully on Tuesday afternoon, bringing scientifically precious samples from the moon's far side back to Earth for the first time.

Carrying the lunar samples, the Chang'e 6's reentry capsule touched down at 2:07 pm on its preset landing site in Siziwang Banner of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, putting an end to the 53-day voyage involving a host of complex, challenging maneuvers.

The reentry and landing processes started at around 1:22 pm when mission controllers at the Beijing Aerospace Control Center uploaded high-accuracy navigation data to the orbiter-reentry capsule combination that was traveling around Earth.