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A Chinese spacecraft carrying the country’s first lunar samples left the moon late Thursday, China’s National Space Administration announced.
This represented the first ever Chinese spacecraft to take off from an extraterrestrial body.
China’s Chang’e-5 spacecraft, consisting of an orbiter, lander, ascender and returner, was launched on November 24, and its lander-ascender combination landed north of Mons Rumker in Oceanus Procellarum, also known as like the Ocean of Storms, on the near side of the moon on December 1st.
After the samples were collected and sealed, the Chang’e-5 elevator took off from the lunar surface and is expected to complete the unmanned rendezvous and dock with the orbiter-returner in lunar orbit, a unprecedented feat.
Chang’e-5 is one of the most complicated and challenging missions in Chinese aerospace history, as well as the world’s first lunar champion mission in more than 40 years.
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