Pakistan's iCube Qamar sends back first image of moon

In a significant development, Pakistan's satellite mission, iCube Qamar, sent back the first image of the moon from lunar orbit, the national space agency said.

Earlier on May 3, Pakistan launched its iCube Qamar aboard Chang’E-6 Mission from the Wenchang space launch site, Hainan in China.

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

The satellite made the country proud by entering into the lunar orbit on May 8.

Following the feat, Pakistan became the sixth country to bid for touching down on the Earth’s natural satellite.

The moon is at an average distance of 384,400km from earth.

The Institute of Space Technology, talking to a private news channel, informed that iCube-Qamar made three rounds around the moon.

The China National Space Agency (CNSA) unveiled the images at a ceremony to mark the successful moon mission 

The CNSA handed over the images to Pakistan’s ambassador to Beijing during the ceremony.

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.

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

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