The Long March 5 rocket carrying Chang 5 appears on the launch pad at Hainan’s Venchang space launch site. The 8.2-ton Change 5 probe, which includes a lander, climber, service module and return capsule, is the sixth mission of the Chinese lunar research program Transformation. The goal of the mission is to collect lunar soil and rock samples from the Ocean Procelarum and bring them back to Earth. If successful, Revenge 5 will be the first sample-return mission since 1976.
Alexei Ivanov | TASS | Getty Images
Guangzhou, China – A Chinese lunar spacecraft is preparing to return to Earth after exploding from the moon.
China has launched a spacecraft from the body of the outside world and has collected lunar samples for the first time. If lunar samples would bring it back to Earth, the U.S. in the 1960s. And China will be the third country in the world to receive lunar samples after efforts by the Soviet Union in the 1970s.
The Change-5 spacecraft took off from the moon at 23:10 pm Beijing time on Thursday, according to the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. The spacecraft successfully launched into a pre-determined orbit around the moon.
The probe is expected to land in China’s Inner Mongolia region in mid-December in conjunction with a return spacecraft to return to Earth.
Over the past few years, China has stepped up its space efforts. According to President Xi Jinping Daily, President Xi Jinping urged the industry earlier this year to make China a “great space power as soon as possible.”
In June, China launched the final satellite to complete its rival Bidou of the US government-owned Global Positioning System (GPS), which is widely used around the world.
And in July, China also launched an ambitious mission called Tianwen-1 on Mars.
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