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China launches lunar probe to get samples from the far side of the moon as “space race” with U.S. ramps up
China on Friday launched a lunar probe to land on the far side of the moon and return with samples that could provide insights into differences between the less-explored region and the better-known near side.
It is the latest advance in China’s increasingly sophisticated space exploration program, which is now competing with the U.S., still the leader in space.
Free from exposure to Earth and other interference, the moon’s somewhat mysterious far side is ideal for radio astronomy and other scientific work. Because the far side never faces Earth, a relay satellite is needed to maintain communications.
China also has a three-member crew on its own orbiting space station and aims to put astronauts on the moon by 2030. Three Chinese lunar probe missions are planned over the next four years.
The rocket carrying the Chang’e-6 lunar probe – named after the Chinese mythical moon goddess – lifted off Friday at 5:27 p.m. as planned from the Wenchang launch center on the island province of Hainan.
/ AP
Huge numbers of people crowded Hainan’s beaches to view the launch, which comes in the middle of China’s five-day May Day holiday.
After orbiting the moon to reduce speed, the lander will separate from the spacecraft and begin scooping up samples almost as soon as it sets down. It will then reconnect with the returner for the trip back to Earth. The entire mission is set to last 53 days.
China in 2020 returned samples from the moon’s near side, the first time anyone has done so since the U.S. Apollo program that ended in the 1970s. Analysis of the samples found they contained water in tiny beads embedded in lunar dirt.
Also in the past week, three Chinese astronauts returned home from a six-month mission on the country’s orbiting space station after the arrival of its replacement crew. The Shenzhou 18 flight to replace the crew was China’s seventh piloted mission to its space station and its fifth since around-the-clock staffing began in June 2022.
China built its own space station after being excluded from the International Space Station, largely because of U.S. concerns over the Chinese military’s total control of the space program amid a sharpening competition in technology between the two geopolitical rivals. U.S. law bars almost all cooperation between the U.S. and Chinese space programs without explicit congressional approval.
China’s ambitious space program aims to put astronauts on the moon by 2030, as well as bring back samples from Mars around the same year and launch three lunar probe missions over the next four years. The next is schedule for 2027.
Longer-term plans call for a permanent crewed base on the lunar surface, although those appear to remain in the conceptual phase.
China conducted its first crewed space mission in 2003, becoming the third country after the former Soviet Union and the U.S. to put a person into space using its own resources.
The three-module Tiangong space station, much smaller than the ISS, was launched in 2021 and completed 18 months later. It can accommodate up to six astronauts at a time and is mainly dedicated to scientific research. The crew will also install space debris protection equipment, carry out payload experiments, and beam science classes to students on Earth.
China has also said that it eventually plans to offer access to its space station to foreign astronauts and space tourists. With the ISS nearing the end of its useful life, China could eventually be the only country or corporation to maintain a crewed station in orbit.
The U.S. space program is believed to still hold a significant edge over China’s due to its spending, supply chains and capabilities.
The U.S. aims to put a crew back on the lunar surface by the end of 2025 as part of a renewed commitment to crewed missions, aided by private sector players such as SpaceX and Blue Origin. They plan to land on the moon’s south pole where permanently shadowed craters are believed to be packed with frozen water.
NASA and its partners plan to retire the ISS in 2030, remotely driving it to a destructive re-entry in the atmosphere above the south Pacific Ocean, well away from shipping lanes and populated areas. That will leave Tiangong as the only government-operated space station in low-Earth orbit.
China plans to launch its own taikonauts to the moon starting in 2030, fueling what NASA Administrator Bill Nelson calls a new superpower space race.
“It is a fact: We’re in a space race,” he told Politico in an interview published last year. “And it is true that we better watch out that they don’t get to a place on the moon under the guise of scientific research. And it is not beyond the realm of possibility that they say, ‘keep out, we’re here, this is our territory.'”
William Harwood contributed to this report.
An American climber was rescued after she and another alpinist from the U.K. were stranded for two days at more than 20,000 feet in the Himalayan mountains.
Michelle Dvorak, 31, and Fay Manners, 37, went missing on Thursday after their equipment and food tumbled down a ravine while trekking up India’s Chaukhamba mountain, CBS News partner BBC reported.
The pair sent an emergency message but search and rescue teams were unable to find them.
INDIAN AIR FORCE/Handout via REUTERS
Manners told the BBC they were “terrified” as they tried to make part of the descent down the treacherous mountains without supplies.
“I watched the bag tumble down the mountain and I immediately knew the consequence of what was to come,” she said. “We had none of our safety equipment left. No tent. No stove to melt snow for water. No warm clothes for the evening.”
The terrifying ordeal intensified when it started to snow. They took cover on a ledge while waiting for rescuers.
“I felt hypothermic, constantly shaking and with the lack of food my body was running out of energy to keep warm,” Manners said.
The rescue was made difficult because of the conditions, including bad weather, fog and high altitude.
“The helicopter flew passed again, couldn’t see us. We were destroyed,” Manners told the BBC.
INDIAN AIR FORCE/Handout via REUTERS
On the second day, the pair began to cautiously abseil down the mountain. They spotted a team of French climbers coming toward them. Manners said they shared their equipment and food and contacted the helicopter company with an exact location.
“I cried with relief knowing we might survive,” she said.
The Indian Air Force said in a post on the X social media platform that their helicopter airlifted the climbers from 17,400 feet after “battling two days of bad weather.”
Chaukhamba is a mountain massif in the Garhwal Himalaya in northern India.
President Biden approved the mobilization of another 500 active-duty troops to North Carolina to assist in the recovery efforts after the deadly and devastating Hurricane Helene.
“With a total of 1,500 troops now supplementing a robust on-the-ground effort – including more than 6,100 National Guardsmen and more than 7,000 Federal personnel – the Biden-Harris Administration is mobilizing all relevant resources to support families as they begin their road to rebuilding,” the White House said in a statement Sunday.
Mr. Biden previously announced that the federal government would cover “100%” of costs for debris removal and emergency protective measures in North Carolina for six months. The Biden administration has also released more than $137 million in federal funds – including $100 million in transportation funds for North Carolina to begin rebuilding damaged roads and bridges.
Mike Stewart / AP
More than 800 people unable to return home are staying in lodging provided through FEMA, and 22 shelters are still housing nearly 1,000 people as mobile feeding operations continue to help survivors.
“My Administration is sparing no resource to support families as they begin their road to rebuilding,” Biden said. “We will continue working hand-in-hand with local and state leaders – regardless of political party and no matter how long it takes.”
Earlier Sunday, North Carolina Sen. Thom Tills called for more resources to bolster the relief effort and likened the damage to Hurricane Katrina’s mark on Louisiana in 2005.
“The scope of this storm is more like Katrina,” he told CBS News’ Margaret Brennan on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan”. “It may look like a flood to the outside observer, but again, this is a landmass roughly the size of the state of Massachusetts, with damage distributed throughout. We have to get maximum resources on the ground immediately to finish rescue operations.”
Mr. Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have all traveled to some of the impacted regions.
Hurricane Helene caused catastrophic damage from Florida into the Appalachian mountains and killed more than 225 people across multiple states. That number includes 114 killed in North Carolina alone.
The White House said Mr. Biden has also been briefed on Hurricane Milton, which is forecast to make landfall in Florida’s Tampa Bay area as a major storm on Wednesday.
U.S. disaster relief chief blasts false claims about Helene response
Deanne Criswell, who leads the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said on Sunday that the recent false claims and conspiracy theories about the federal response to the storm are “demoralizing” aid workers.
“It’s frankly ridiculous, and just plain false. This kind of rhetoric is not helpful to people,” she said. “It’s really a shame that we’re putting politics ahead of helping people, and that’s what we’re here to do. We have had the complete support of the state,” she said, referring to North Carolina.
Joe Raedle/ Getty Images
Republicans, led by Trump, have helped foster a frenzy of misinformation over the past week among the communities most devastated by Helene, promoting a number of false claims, including that Washington is intentionally withholding aid to people in Republican areas.
Trump accused FEMA of spending all its money to help immigrants who are in the United States illegally, while other critics assert that the government spends too much on Israel, Ukraine and other foreign countries.
Tillis, a Republican, on Sunday rejected that claim, telling “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that resources being used on immigration is “not yet … affecting the flow of resources to western North Carolina.”
Tillis said the stream of misinformation about relief efforts in North Carolina is a “distraction.”
“I believe that we have to stay focused on rescue operations, recovery operations, clearing operations, and we don’t need any of these distractions on the ground,” Tillis said. “It’s at the expense of hard-working first responders and people that are just trying to recover their lives.”
Mr. Biden said in a statement Sunday that his administration “will continue working hand-in-hand with local and state leaders –- regardless of political party and no matter how long it takes.”
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