It was a successful start to another first for mankind. China's Chang'e-6 lunar probe blasted off Friday from Hainan Province on the back of the country's most powerful rocket. It's mission – to collect and return samples from the mysterious far side of the moon. Sun Ye has more on the probe's unprecedented 53-day mission.

The Chang'e 6 probe was launched by the Long March 5 Y 8 rocket from Wenchang Launch Site on Friday. It accurately entered the Earth-Moon transfer orbit, and the launch was declared a complete success. The Chang'e 6 probe is officially starting a historic journey, to sample-retrieve from the far side of the moon.

YU DENGYUN Chief Designer, Phase Four of China Lunar Exploration Program "It rained heavily. It is still a complete success, we are happy."

LIAO GUORUI Launch Commander, Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site "I'm very excited. Today, we successfully completed our work for the launch day. We hope the best for the Chang'e 6 mission, and hope to see the first sample return mission from the far side of the moon. Hey Moon, we are coming!"

The probe's pre-selected landing and sampling area is the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the lunar far side. It has to jump some serious hoops for the mission to be accomplished.

HU ZHENYU Head of Launch Site Engineering & Technology Team Chang'e-6 Mission "The biggest test for the Chang'e 6 mission is collecting samples from the lunar far side. The engineering has been difficult and the flight control work by far the most complex the country has ever seen. It requires simultaneous telemetry and high-precision orbit determination for multiple targets, with many flight control events, tightly-timely links, and complex control processes. The Chang'e 6 mission has eleven flight stages – from the launch into orbit stage, all the way to its return to earth. This process also involves the probe's four components: the ascender, the lander, the returner, and the orbiter's multiple acts of separations and couplings. Every step has to be accurate to lead to the other, and every single step is crucial."

SUN YE Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site Hainan Province "Chang'e 6 will carry out on-site investigations and analysis of its landing area, as well as research into the samples collected from the lunar far side. It is also carrying multiple international scientific payloads. SUN YE, CGTN, Wenchang, Hainan Province."