Official: China’s moon probe will carry French, Russian gear

BEIJING (AP) — China says it will launch its next robot lunar lander in 2024, and it will carry equipment from France, Sweden, Russia and Italy. The program’s chief designer, Hu Hao, says plans call for Chang’e 6 to land near the lunar south pole and collect samples for return to Earth. The Chang’e landers are part of Chinese space exploration efforts that also include a probe that is preparing to land a robot rover on Mars. There are also plans for a crewed orbital station, landing a human on the moon and retrieving soil from an asteroid. In December, the previous moon probe, Chang’e 5, returned lunar rocks to Earth for the first time since the 1970s.