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By AFP 
39m ago
Beijing, China – A rocket headed for the moon to bring back the first lunar samples in four decades left China on Tuesday in the latest milestone of Beijing’s space ambitions.
China has invested billions in its military-run space program, with the hope of having a manned space station by 2022 and eventually sending humans to the moon.
The mission’s goal is to shovel moon rocks and soil to help scientists learn about the Moon’s origins, formation and volcanic activity on its surface.
State TV footage of the launch showed the rocket flying on a dark night and carrying the Chang’e-5 probe, named after the mythical Chinese moon goddess, with huge clouds of smoke spewing out below.
The eight-ton spacecraft took off at 4:30 am (2030 GMT on Monday) at the Wenchang Space Center in the southern province of Hainan Island.
The crowd watched the launch from the beach of the tropical Chinese island, holding cell phones aloft to film as the rocket flew into the sky.
The original mission, scheduled for 2017, was delayed due to an engine failure of the Long March 5 rocket.
If successful, China will only be the third country to have recovered samples from the Moon, after the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1960s and 1970s.
The Chinese spacecraft will collect two kilograms (4.5 pounds) of surface material in a previously unexplored area known as Oceanus Procellarum – or “Ocean of Storms” – which consists of a vast lava plain, according to the scientific journal Nature.
The spacecraft is expected to land in late November and collect material during one lunar day, equivalent to about 14 Earth days.
The samples will then be returned to Earth in a capsule scheduled to land in the Inner Mongolia region of northern China in early December, according to US space agency NASA.
“One of the riskiest missions”
The mission is technically demanding and involves several innovations not seen during previous attempts to collect moon rocks, said Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
“The United States never returned a robotic sample. The Soviet one was very limited and could only land in a few limited spots,” McDowell told AFP.
“The Chinese system will be the most flexible and capable robotic sample return system yet.”
A Chinese lunar rover landed on the far side of the moon in January 2019, in a world first that reinforced Beijing’s aspirations to become a space superpower.
It was the second Chinese probe to land on the moon, following the Yutu (“Jade Rabbit”) rover mission in 2013.
Chen Lan, an independent analyst at GoTaikonauts who specializes in the Chinese space program, said the latest launch was an opportunity for China to develop a technology that would be used in a future manned space landing and described it as “one of the riskiest missions launched by China”.
“Not only does it need to take off from the lunar surface and re-enter Earth’s atmosphere at a faster rate, but it also needs to perform lunar rendezvous and docking operations in lunar orbit,” Chen told AFP.
The official Xinhua news agency on Tuesday hailed the launch of Chang’e-5 as a sign of China’s leadership in space.
“While China is now taking the lead in lunar exploration through decades of independent innovation in space technologies, it has always been committed to sharing results,” Xinhua said in a comment.
The latest Chang’e-5 probe is part of a series of ambitious goals set by Beijing, including the creation of a super-powerful rocket capable of carrying heavier payloads than NASA and private space company SpaceX can. manage, a lunar base, a permanent space station crew and a Mars rover.
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