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A Chinese spacecraft has left the moon’s surface to return to Earth, bringing with it the first lunar rock samples collected in four decades.
China has invested billions in its military-run space program, with hopes of having a manned space station by 2022 and eventually sending humans to the moon.
The Chang’e-5 spacecraft, named after the mythical Chinese moon goddess, left the surface at 11:10 pm (1510 GMT), state broadcaster CCTV said, as mission engineers who were nailed to the screens of control cheered for a long time.
A module carrying lunar rocks and soil was in orbit after activating a powerful thrust engine, China’s National Space Administration said of the mission that was launched from China’s southern Hainan province.
Scientists hope the samples will help them learn about the moon’s origins, formation, and volcanic activity on its surface.
If the return trip is successful, China will be only the third country to have recovered samples from the moon, after the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1960s and 1970s.
This is the first such attempt since the Soviet Union’s Luna 24 mission in 1976.
The spacecraft was supposed to collect 2 kg (4.5 lb) of material in a previously unexplored area known as Oceanus Procellarum – or “Ocean of Storms” – a vast lava plain, according to the scientific journal Nature.
The samples will be returned to Earth in a capsule scheduled to land in the Inner Mongolia region of northern China, according to NASA.
Under President Xi Jinping, plans for China’s “space dream”, as he calls it, have been pushed to the limit.
Beijing is trying to finally catch up with the United States and Russia after years of belated correspondence with their space milestones.
China launched its first satellite in 1970, while human spaceflight took decades longer – with Yang Liwei becoming the first “taikonaut” in 2003.
A Chinese lunar rover landed on the far side of the moon in January 2019 in a world first that bolstered Beijing’s aspirations to become a space superpower.
The latest spacecraft is part of a series of ambitious goals, which include creating a powerful rocket capable of carrying loads heavier than NASA and private company SpaceX can handle, a lunar base and a manned space station. permanent.
Chinese taikonauts and scientists have also talked about manned missions to Mars.
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