Pakistan launches its first-ever satellite moon mission iCube Qamar

Pakistan on Friday launched its first satellite moon mission, iCube Qamar, aboard Chang’E-6 Mission from Wenchang space launch site, Hainan in China.

The student cube satellite was being carried by China's Long March-5 rocket.

The satellite was designed and developed by the Institute of Space Technology (IST) in collaboration with China’s Shanghai University SJTU and Pakistan’s national space agency Suparco.

According to IST, the iCube-Q orbiter carries two optical cameras to take pictures and videos of the lunar surface.

iCube-Q was integrated with the Chang’e 6, which is the sixth in a series of China’s lunar exploration missions.

Talking to a private news channel, IST's Dr Khurram Khurshid said that the mission will reach the lunar orbit in five days and will collect samples from the the surface of the moon for three to six months.

"Satellite will take different pictures of the moon's surface after which Pakistan will have its own satellite images of the moon for research," he added.

This is the first mission in history that will make a landing on the moon’s far side.