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A Chinese spacecraft dug into the moon’s surface on Tuesday as part of a mission to bring back lunar rocks for the first time since the Soviet Luna 24 probe recovered samples in 1976, authorities said.
The Chang’e 5 probe, which descended from an orbiter and landed in the Sea of Storms, released images showing the lander’s shadow on the near side of the moon, the China National Space Administration said.
“Chang’e has collected lunar samples,” the agency said in a statement.
The landing is “a historic step in China’s cooperation with the international community in the peaceful use of outer space,” said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying.
“China will continue to promote international cooperation and the exploration and use of outer space in the spirit of working for the benefit of all mankind,” he added.
The plans call for Chang’e to spend two days drilling and collecting 4.4 pounds of rock and debris.
The upper stage of the spacecraft is expected to be launched back into lunar orbit to transfer the precious cargo to the capsule for the trip back to Earth, just as NASA’s manned Apollo 11 Eagle Lunar Module did for the first time. time in 1969.
The Chinese spacecraft will land in the grasslands of North China in mid-December.
The samples are expected to be available for other countries, although it is unclear how much access NASA will have due to the US government’s restrictions on cooperation with the space program linked to China’s military.
US and Russian space officials congratulated their Chinese counterparts.
“Congratulations to China on the successful landing of Chang’e 5. This is not an easy task,” said NASA science mission chief Thomas Zurbuchen. said on Twitter.
“When the samples collected on the Moon are returned to Earth, we hope that everyone will benefit from being able to study this precious cargo that could advance the international scientific community,” he added.
American astronauts brought in 842 pounds of lunar samples from the Apollo missions between 1969 and 1972.
The Chinese probe, launched Nov. 24 from the tropical island of Hainan, is the latest venture in a space program to put the country’s first astronaut into orbit in 2003.
Beijing, which also has a spacecraft en route to Mars, aims to finally land a human on the moon, where the last person to walk was Apollo 17 astronaut Eugene Cernan, who died on January 16, 2017 at the 82 years.
With wire poles
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