"The launch is a key step for China to realise its goal of being the first country to send a probe to soft-land on and rove the far side of the moon," the state news service Xinhua quoted Zhang Lihua, the satellite project's manager
More research is better than less research, more competition is better than less competition. The next time humans set foot on the Moon, though, it won't be a nation-state sending them -- but they'll launch from US territory. Thanks Simon Green, and a ping to my old version of the APoD list and some other lucky people. :^)
They chose the Dark Side of the Moon so that if they crash, nobody would see it......................