[ad_1]
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, an ascender, a service module and a return capsule, is the sixth mission of the Chinese lunar exploration program Change. The objective of the mission is to collect rock and lunar soil samples from Oceanus Procellarum and bring them back to Earth. If successful, Change 5 will be the first sample return mission since 1976.
Alexei Ivanov | TASS | fake images
GUANGZHOU, China – China’s lunar mission came to an end with its spacecraft returning to Earth with lunar samples, a first for the country.
At around 2:00 am Beijing time on Thursday, the Chang’e 5 reentry capsule carrying the moon rocks landed safely in Inner Mongolia in the north of the country, according to the Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. China (CASC).
China is only the third country in the world to recover lunar samples after efforts by the United States in the 1960s and the Soviet Union in the 1970s.
The Chang’e 5 spacecraft was launched via the Long March 5 rocket on November 24. The probe landed on the Moon on December 1 and collected the samples the next day. On December 3, the spacecraft was successfully launched from the lunar surface into a predetermined orbit around the moon carrying the samples.
A recovery team is working to recover the samples and transport them to Beijing, according to CASC.
Chinese President Xi Jinping congratulated the mission.
“His remarkable feats will always be remembered by our country and our people,” Xi said, according to the state publication Xinhua.
The success of China’s lunar mission opens a new front in competition with the United States, this time in space missions, an area where the world’s second-largest economy has stepped up its efforts in recent years.
Xi urged the industry 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 complete Beidou, its rival to the US 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.
