China's Lofty Space Ambitions Include 2018 Landing on Moon's Far Side

China's Information Office of the State Council on Tuesday (Dec. 27) released an expansive white paper on that country's space activities in 2016. The document also projected a look at China's space agenda over the coming years, a plan that includes a lunar sample-return mission and the first soft-landing on the far side of the moon in 2018. In an associated press conference marking the release of the white paper, vice administrator of the China National Space Administration, Wu Yanhua