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. The probe will go through many stages on the 53-day mission before bringing home the precious lunar soil.

WANG QIONG Deputy Chief Designer, Chang'e-6 Mission "The Chang'e 6 mission has some 11 flight stages. First, it is launched into orbit by the Long March 5 carrier rocket. Then it enters a 'rush to the moon' process. When nearing the moon, it will 'pull a brake' and enter the lunar orbit – that's called perilune braking process. Then the probe flies in the lunar orbit, the lander and ascender form a combination, and the orbiter and returner form another combination.

"The landing/ascending combination will touchdown on the far side of the moon to carry out lunar sampling task, while the orbit-return combination will continue to fly. The sampling on the far side of the moon includes both drilling and surface sampling methods, and scientific exploration on the far side of the moon will also be carried out.

"After the sampling is completed, the ascender carrying the collected lunar soil will take off from the far side of the moon to dock with the orbit-return combination. The moon samples will be handed over to the returner. When the orbit-return combination comes near the Earth, the returning capsule will separate. In a 'hopping' move, the returner will re-enter the earth's atmosphere and land in Siziwangqi, Inner Mongolia."