Chinese craft carrying Moon rocks returns to Earth: Xinhua
17 December, 2020
An unmanned Chinese spacecraft carrying rocks and soil from the Moon returned safely to Earth in early stages Thursday (Dec 17) in the primary mission in several decades to accumulate lunar samples, the Xinhua media agency said.
The capsule carrying the samples collected by the Chang'e-5 space probe landed in northern China's Inner Mongolia region, Xinhua said, quoting the China National Space Administration (CNSA).
The agency's director, Zhang Kejian, declared the objective successful, Xinhua said.
With this objective, China became only the third country to have retrieved samples from the Moon, following the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1960s and 1970s.
Beijing is looking to catch up with Washington and Moscow after acquiring decades to complement its rivals' achievements and has poured billions into its military-run space program.
Chang'e-5, called after a good mythical Chinese Moon goddess, landed on the Moon on Dec 1. While there, it brought up the Chinese flag, the country's space organization said.
When the probe left the Moon two days soon after, that marked the 1st time that China had achieved take-away from an extraterrestrial body system, it said.
The module then went through the delicate procedure of linking up in lunar orbit with the the main spacecraft that brought the samples back again to Earth.
Scientists trust the samples can help them learn about the Moon's origins, formation and volcanic activity on its surface.
The Chang'e-5 objective was to accumulate two kilograms (4.5 pounds) of material in an area known as Oceanus Procellarum - or "Ocean of Storms" - a vast, previously unexplored lava ordinary, in line with the science journal Nature.
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The capsule will be airlifted to Beijing for opening, and the Moon samples will be delivered to a study team for analysis and study, the area agency said.
SPACE DREAM
China will make a few of the samples available to scientists far away, Pei Zhaoyu, deputy director of the Lunar Exploration and Space Course Center of CNSA, has said.
Xinhua described the objective as one of the most challenging and complicated in China's aerospace record. The probe comprised separate craft to get to the Moon, land on it and accumulate the samples, get back up and then returning the rocks and soil to Earth, Xinhua explained.
The return capsule entered the Earth's atmosphere at an altitude of about 120 kilometres (75 miles). When it had been about 10 km above territory, a parachute opened up and it landed easily, and a search group recovered it, the agency said.
This is the first such try to collect such samples because the Soviet Union's Luna 24 mission in 1976.
Under President Xi Jinping, ideas for China's "space dream", as he calls it, have been put into overdrive.
China hopes to have a crewed space station by 2022 and eventually send individuals to the Moon.
China launched its initial satellite in 1970, even while human spaceflight took years a bit longer - with Yang Liwei becoming the country's first "taikonaut" in 2003.
A good Chinese lunar rover landed on the other side of the Moon in January 2019 in a global earliest that boosted Beijing's aspirations to become space superpower.
The most recent probe is among a slew of ambitious targets, which include creating a robust rocket capable of delivering payloads heavier than those NASA and private rocket firm SpaceX can handle, a lunar base, a permanently crewed space station, and a Mars rover.
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