China says its uncrewed craft has successfully landed on the far side of the Moon - an unexplored place almost no-one tries to go, BBC reported.

The Chang'e 6 touched down in the South Pole-Aitken Basin at 06:23 Beijing time on Sunday morning (22:23 GMT Saturday), the China National Space Administration (CNSA) said.

The probe could extract some of the Moon's oldest rocks from a huge crater on its South Pole.

The landing was fraught with risks, because it is very difficult to communicate with spacecraft once they reach the far side of the Moon. China is the only country to have achieved the feat before, landing its Chang'e-4 in 2019.

After launching from Wenchang Space Launch Center, the Chang'e 6 spacecraft had been orbiting the Moon waiting to land.

The lander component of the mission then separated from the orbiter to touch down on the side of the Moon that faces permanently away from Earth.

The operation was supported by the Queqiao-2 relay satellite, the CNSA said.

Chinese state media described the successful landing as an “historic moment”.

The state broadcaster said “applause erupted at the Beijing Aerospace Flight Control Center” when the Chang’e landing craft touched down on the Moon early on Sunday morning.

The lander should spend up to three days gathering materials from the surface in an operation the CNSA said would involve "many engineering innovations, high risks and great difficulty".

The mission aims to collect about 2kg (4.4lb) of material using a drill and mechanical arm, according to the CNSA.

The South Pole–Aitken basin, an impact crater, is one of the largest known in the solar system.

From there, the probe could gather material that came from deep inside the lunar mantle - the inner core of the Moon - Prof Pernet-Fisher says.

The Moon's South Pole is the next frontier in lunar missions - countries are keen to understand the region because there is a good chance it has ice.

bd-pratidin/GR