China today launched an unmanned spacecraft aimed at collecting samples from the dark side of the Moon, in a historic mission that could prove to be a major leap for the country’s ambitious space program.

The rocket carrying the Chang’e 6 spacecraft was launched from the Wenchang Space Center on the tropical island of Hainan shortly before 5:30 p.m. local time (11:30 a.m. Greek time), the New China agency reported. The goal of this mission is to collect about two kilograms of samples from the dark side of the Moon and bring them back to Earth for analysis. It is a technically complex mission that will last 53 days.

“Chang’e 6 will collect samples from the dark side of the Moon for the first time,” Ge Ping, deputy director of China’s Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering Center, told reporters.

In 2019, China had landed a spacecraft on the dark side of the Moon, but had not collected any samples.

Chang’e 6 will land on the moon’s south pole, in the Aitken crater, one of the largest in the solar system. He will then collect soil and stones and conduct experiments in this zone. After the mission is completed, it will return to Earth to land in Wenchang.

The US plans to return to the Moon with a manned mission in 2026. China also wants to send astronauts to Earth’s satellite sometime by 2030. Beijing has been barred from the International Space Station since 2011, when the US banned NASA to work with China, which then developed its own space station program. The rapid development of the Chinese program is causing concern in Washington. In April NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said the US was now engaged in a “race to the ground” with Beijing. “We believe that a large part of what they call a civilian space program is actually a military one,” he told a House committee.

Chang’e 6 is the first of three unmanned missions China plans to send to the Moon this decade. Chang’e 7 will then explore the lunar south pole in search of water, while Chang’e 8 will try to determine whether it is technically feasible to build a base on Earth’s natural satellite.