First in history! China's spacecraft nears landing on the far side of moon

China is only the third country - it followed the United States and Russia - to send its own astronauts into space aboard its own rockets

China is trying to reach a milestone in space exploration: landing a vehicle on the far side of the moon for the first time in history.

The mission is one in a series that underscore the country’s ambitions to join — and even lead — the space race. The spacecraft, whose landing could come on Thursday, is called Chang’e-4 after the moon goddess in Chinese mythology.

China landed another rover on the moon in 2013, joining the United States and the Soviet Union as the only nations to have carried out a “soft landing” there, but the Chang’e-4 would be the first