China lands spacecraft on 'dark' side of moon in world first
By KEN MORITSUGU, Associated Press BEIJING (AP) — China's burgeoning space program achieved a first on Thursday: a landing on the so-called dark side of the moon that brings the country closer to its goal of becoming a space power. Three nations — the United States, the former Soviet Union and more recently China — have sent spacecraft to the near side of the moon, which faces Earth, but this landing