🌓 China's Chang’e 6 sample-return probe lands on moon’s far side, Starliner’s first crewed launch aborted, Neuralink rival shatters world record by implanting 4,096 electrodes in brain

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Equipped with tools and its own launcher, the Chang’e-6 craft landed in the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the moon’s far side at 6:23 a.m. (Beijing time) on June 2, according to Chinese authorities.

The Chinese space agency also outlined that the “Chang’e-6 mission is the first human sampling and return mission from the far side of the moon”.

“It involves many engineering innovations, high risks and great difficulty,” Chinese space authorities said in a statement. For more on this development, check out today’s Must-Read.

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🌓 China successfully lands Chang’e 6 sample-return probe on moon’s far side

“Compared with the Chang’e-5 mission that will achieve the sampling and return from the front side of the moon in 2020, the Chang’e-6 mission has made breakthroughs in the design and control technology of the lunar retrograde orbit, and will, with the support of the Queqiao-2 relay satellite, complete key technical nodes such as intelligent and rapid sampling from the far side of the moon, and takeoff and ascent from the far side of the moon,” added Chinese space authorities.

Furthermore, the payloads on the Chang’e-6 lander will perform scientific exploration missions as planned. International payloads, including the European Space Agency’s lunar surface negative ion analyzer and the French lunar radon detector, are set to start working, while the Italian laser corner reflector has already been deployed.

🚀 Boeing Starliner’s first crewed launch aborted minutes before liftoff

Boeing’s Starliner space capsule was unexpectedly halted before its highly anticipated first crewed test flight. The astronauts were aboard and prepared for liftoff when a computer abort system malfunction led to the postponement.

The first crewed launch of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft has been postponed to June 5 at the earliest. The delay follows an automatic abort that interrupted a launch attempt on Saturday afternoon just minutes before liftoff.

Astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore were among the crew members onboard the Starliner capsule, ready for launch, when the countdown was abruptly stopped at three minutes and 50 seconds. The launch had been originally scheduled for 12:25 pm ET from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

🧠 Neuralink rival shatters world record, implants 4,096 electrodes in brain

Neuralink rival Precision Neuroscience has shattered the world record by implanting over 4,096 electrodes in a human brain. The brain-computer interface company surpassed the previous record of 2,048 set last year.

The higher number of electrodes allows more data to be transmitted to and from the brain, impacting the interface system’s capabilities.

The record was achieved in April 2024 during an ongoing clinical study at the Mount Sinai Health System in New York, where Precision Neuroscience’s implant is being tested.

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