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The Long March 5 rocket carrying Chang’e 5 is seen on the launch pad at the Wenchang space launch site in Hainan. The 8.2-ton Change 5 probe, consisting of a lander, blocker, service module, and return capsule, is the sixth mission in China’s Change lunar exploration program. The mission’s goal is to collect samples of lunar soil and rock from Oceanus Procellarum and bring them back to Earth. If successful, Change 5 will be the first champion return mission since 1976.
Alexei Ivanov | TASS | Getty Images
GUANGZHOU, China – A Chinese spacecraft carrying lunar samples has flown off the moon and is preparing to return to Earth.
It is the first time that China has launched a spaceship from an extraterrestrial body and the first time that it has collected lunar samples. If the lunar samples return to Earth, China will only be the third country in the world to recover lunar samples after the efforts of the United States in the 1960s and the Soviet Union in the 1970s.
On Thursday at 11:10 pm Beijing time, the Chang’e-5 probe took off from the moon, according to the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. The probe was successfully launched into a predetermined orbit around the moon.
The probe will encounter a returning spacecraft to return to Earth and is expected to land in China’s Inner Mongolia region around mid-December.
China has stepped up its space efforts in recent years. President Xi Jinping urged the industry earlier this year to make China a “great space power as soon as possible,” according to the state-backed China Daily.
In June, China launched the latest satellite to complement Beidou, its rival to the U.S. government-owned Global Positioning System (GPS), which is widely used around the world.
And in July, China also launched an ambitious mission to Mars called Tianwen -1.
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