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“The probe has entered the previously established orbit precisely. The mission was completed successfully“Launch center director and mission manager Zhang Xueyu said, 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 would have 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.
Details of the Chinese action
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.
The mission, named after the Chinese moon goddess Chang`e, is among the boldest in China since the country first placed a man in space in 2003, becoming the third nation to do so, after the US 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.
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