What an incredible start to the year. Today, China's Chang'e 4 lander successfully touched down in the Von Kármán crater, marking the very first time humanity has soft-landed a spacecraft on the far side of the Moon.



Because the Moon is tidally locked to Earth, we never see the far side, and direct communication is impossible. They had to launch a dedicated relay satellite, Queqiao, into a halo orbit just to bounce the signals back home. It is a stunning piece of orbital engineering and opens up a completely unexplored lunar landscape to the little Yutu-2 rover. Brilliant stuff!