The Chinese mission Chang’e 5 lands on the moon to retrieve lunar samples

A Chinese robotic probe has successfully landed on the moon, the Chinese government announced.

It was part of a historic mission to recover samples of the lunar surface, which will help scientists learn more about the moon’s origins.

The spacecraft joins a series of increasingly ambitious Chinese space program operations that ultimately aim to land a human on the moon.

China launched the Chang’e-5 probe on November 24.

The unmanned mission, named after the mythical Chinese moon goddess, aims to collect 2 kg of samples in a previously unvisited area.

The area is a massive lava plain known as Oceanus Procellarum, or “Ocean of Storms”.

If the mission is completed as planned, it would make China the third nation to have recovered lunar samples after the United States and Russia.

The ground vehicle that landed on the lunar surface was one of several spacecraft deployed by the Chang’e-5 probe.

Upon landing, the vehicle would have to drill through the ground with a robotic arm, then transfer its soil and rock samples to a blocking vehicle that would lift and dock with an orbiting module.

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State broadcaster CCTV said it will begin collecting samples on the lunar surface over the next two days.

The samples would be transferred to a return capsule for the return trip to Earth, landing in the Chinese region of Inner Mongolia.

China made its first moon landing in 2013.

In January last year, the Chang’e-4 probe landed on the opposite side of the moon, the first spacecraft of any nation to do so.

Reuters / AP