What Happened China has landed a lunar probe on the far side of the moon. On Jan. 3, the Chang'e 4 spacecraft, which includes a rover, performed a soft landing in the moon's Von Karman crater. It's the first mission to overcome the technical challenges of landing on the moon's far side, which, among other feats, requires the probe to communicate with Earth via a lunar satellite relay. The Chang'e 4 mission is a coup for China's ambitious lunar and space exploration programs. The next step for the China National Space Administration will be to dispatch a lunar sample return mission, the Chang'e 5, as early as 2019 or 2020. Why It Matters China's growing ambitions in space go hand in hand with its more terrestrial competition with the United States. The 2011 Wolf Amendment to NASA's appropriation bill effectively bars the U.S. space agency from collaborating with China.