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China today successfully launched the Chang’e-5 spacecraft to collect material from the lunar surface and then return to Earth on its first such mission since the 1970s.
The probe was launched at 4:30 (20:30 on Monday in Lisbon), aboard the Long March 5 missile, from the launch center of Wenchang, in the southern province of Hainão.
“The spacecraft has accurately entered the previously established orbit. The mission was successfully completed,” said Zhang Xueyu, director of the launch center and head of the mission, quoted by Chinese state television CCTV.
According to the Chinese state news agency Xinhua, this is one of the “most complex and challenging space missions” that China has ever undertaken.
“The mission will help promote China’s scientific and technological development and establish an important foundation for future moon landings,” said Pei Zhaoyu, deputy director of the China Space Administration’s Lunar Exploration Center, quoted by Xinhua.
Chang’e-5 is expected to place several modules on the lunar surface to collect about two kilograms of samples.
The spacecraft will take two days to reach the surface and the mission will take about 23 days, Pei said. The samples will arrive on Earth in mid-December.
The mission will make China the third country capable of taking samples of lunar material after the United States and the former Soviet Union did so in the 1970s.
According to CCTV, the mission aims to “contribute to scientific studies on the formation and evolution of the Moon”.
The mission, named after the Chinese moon goddess Chang’e, is among the boldest in China since the country first put a man into space in 2003, becoming the third nation to do so, after the USA and Russia.
China’s Chang’e 4 spacecraft was the first to land on the relatively unexplored side of the moon, which is not visible from Earth, and is providing comprehensive measurements of radiation exposure on the lunar surface, which are vital for any country planning to send astronauts to the moon.
Last July, China became one of three countries to launch a mission to Mars, which will look for signs of water on the red planet. Chinese authorities have indicated that the Tianwen 1 probe is underway to reach Mars around February.
Although the US has closely followed China’s successes in space, it is unlikely to partner with the country, at a time of mounting political tension and distrust, military rivalry and allegations of Chinese usurpation of technology.
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