Beijing and France agree to deepen space cooperation. During President Xi's visit, China recently launched its Chang-e 6 lunar mission to discover the far side of the moon. On-board the probe are instruments from a number of different countries, including France. Our correspondent Ross Cullen reports.

China's Chang'e 6 mission is under way. En route to try something that would be a world-first: Bringing back the first samples from the far side of the Moon.

It's not just a Chinese mission. An Italian laser is on-board, along with a Swedish apparatus to measure negative ions, plus a Pakistani ice detector.

ROSS CULLEN, PARIS "France's contribution to the mission is its DORN instrument to detect radon gas and to study the transport of lunar dust." 

During his visit to China last year, French President Emmanuel Macron was presented with 1.5 grams of moon dust that had been brought to Earth by China's previous Chang'e-5 mission.

President Xi's gift underlined the importance both countries place on space missions and scientific research. These tiny grains have big potential in helping us answer major questions about space.

JEAN DUPRAT, Research Director, French Natural History Museum "Trying to understand how the solar system formed is effectively still an open question. We know the general outline of how it happened but there are still lots of unanswered questions. So it's the study of extraterrestrial material that allows us to respond to many of the questions."

Scientific researchers in France are trying to better understand the history of the Moon. They have been able to rely on international ventures, like China's Chang'e missions.

FREDERIC MOYNIER, Professor of Cosmochemistry "We are lucky that we already have some samples from the Moon from American missions with Apollo and now from the Chinese mission with the Chang'e mission with meteorites and we have a very good understanding or we have a better understanding than before on how did the Moon form, why do we have a satellite, why do we have the Moon."

France has a crucial role in getting Europe's rockets airborne – They are launched from France's overseas territory of French Guiana in South America.

Europe's new heavy-lift rocket is expected to take off this summer. But Ariane 6 is four years behind schedule. 

The Chang'e 6 mission is not the only space launch this year which China and France have been working together on. The Space Variable Objects Monitor, or SVOM, will use small telescopes to study the most distant explosions of stars.

It's the second satellite jointly developed by China and France. In 2018, the two countries launched a probe to examine interactions between the oceans and the atmosphere. The new SVOM spacecraft will launch in June. Ross Cullen, CGTN, PARIS.