China is scheduled to launch an unmanned lunar mission Friday that aims to bring back samples from the far side of the moon for the first time.

China will launch a mission in an attempt to be the first country to return rock and soil samples from the far side of the moon.

China is attempting to recover the first ever soil and rock samples from the lunar far side. The surface mission, Chang'e 6, named after the Chinese moon goddess Chang'e, is a successor to the successful sample return mission,

The countdown begins for China’s Chang’e-6 robotic spacecraft’s momentous journey to the lunar surface, with a scheduled launch this Friday, targeting a historic first: retrieving samples from the far side of the moon.