Story highlights China plans to send a spacecraft to land on the moon's "dark side" before 2020

The feat is more technically challenging than landing on the near side visible to earth

China is the third nation to successfully land on the moon

(CNN) China has confirmed it plans to send a spacecraft to land on the moon's "dark side" before 2020, state media reports -- a mission, which, if successful, would make it the first country to do so.

The mission will be carried out by the lunar probe Chang'e-4, Zou Yongliao, a scientist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences said at a deep space exploration forum on Tuesday.

In May, Wu Weiren, the chief engineer for China's Lunar Exploration Program told state-run broadcaster CCTV that China would send the Chang'e-4 spacecraft to orbit the moon before sending a rover to the surface.

"We probably will choose a site on which it is more difficult to land and more technically challenging... Our next move will probably see some spacecraft land on the far side of the moon," Wu said.

China successfully landed a spacecraft -- the Chang'e 3 -- on the moon in December 2013, becoming only the third nation after the United States and Russia to land on the moon's surface.