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A Chinese spacecraft has departed from the moon, carrying pieces of its surface.
It will be the first time lunar rocks have been returned to Earth in decades, and marks a major step forward in China’s mission to get people to the moon and travel further into the solar system.
The government space agency said the Chang’e 5 aircraft successfully took off from the lunar surface after arriving on Tuesday.
It was the third Chinese spacecraft to land on the moon, but it was the first time the country has recovered from its surface.
Its mission was to collect about 2 kg (4 lb) of moon rocks and bring them back to Earth, the first return of samples since Soviet spaceships did so in the 1970s.
Previously, US Apollo astronauts brought back hundreds of pounds of moon rocks.
The landing site is near a formation called Mons Rumker and may contain rocks billions of years younger than those previously recovered.
The ascent vehicle took off from the moon shortly after 11pm Beijing time Thursday (1500 GMT) and was supposed to meet with a vehicle returning to lunar orbit, then transfer the samples to a capsule, according to the National Space Administration. Chinese.
The lunar rocks and debris have been sealed inside a special container to prevent contamination.
It was not clear when the link would take place. After the transfer, the ascent module would be ejected and the capsule would remain in lunar orbit for about a week, waiting for the optimal time to make the journey back to Earth.
Chinese officials said the capsule with the samples is expected to land on Earth around the middle of the month.
The touchdown is scheduled for the prairies of Inner Mongolia, where Chinese astronauts have made their return aboard the Shenzhou spacecraft.
The Chang’e 5 lander, which remained on the moon, was able to collect samples from the surface and drill two meters.
While sample recovery was its primary task, the lander was also equipped to extensively photograph the area, map sub-surface conditions with ground-penetrating radar, and analyze the lunar soil for minerals and water content.
Just before the ascent vehicle took off, the lander deployed what the space administration called the first independent Chinese flag on the moon.
The agency released an image, apparently taken from the lander, of the ascending vehicle firing its engines as it takes off.
Chang’e 5 has revived talks about China that it will one day send astronauts to the moon and possibly build a science base there, although no timeline has been proposed for such projects.
China launched its first temporary orbiting laboratory in 2011 and a second in 2016. Plans call for a permanent space station after 2022, possibly to be assisted by a reusable space plane.
While China is stepping up cooperation with the European Space Agency and others, interactions with NASA are severely limited by US concerns about the covert nature and close military ties of the Chinese program.
Additional reporting from Press Association
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