China to launch its first spacecraft to moon to collect samples, return to earth

In the first attempt by any nation to retrieve samples from Earth's natural satellite since the 1970s, China is gearing up for the launch of an unmanned spacecraft to the moon.

China is gearing up for the launch of an unmanned spacecraft to the moon on Tuesday to bring back lunar rocks in the first attempt by any nation to retrieve samples from Earth's natural satellite since the 1970s. The launch is expected to take place between 4-5 am (2000-2100GMT) in the early hours of November 24.

China National Space Administration (CNSA) said that the fuelling of the Long March-5 rocket, currently China's largest launch vehicle, began on Monday ahead of the launch on early Tuesday. The rocket, which will send the Chang'e-5 spacecraft to Earth-moon transfer orbit, is scheduled to be launched from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in south China's Hainan Province in the early hours on Tuesday.

The Chang'e-5 probe, named after the ancient Chinese goddess of the moon, will seek to collect material that can help scientists understand more about the moon's origins and formation. The mission will test China's ability to remotely acquire samples from space, ahead of more complex missions.

Chang'e, the "Moon Lady," took a potion and floated into the sky, eventually landing on the moon, where she became a goddess accompanied by a jade rabbit.

If successful, the mission will make China only the third country to have retrieved lunar samples, following the United States and the Soviet Union decades ago.

During a brief government organised visit to the launch centre a group of reporters were taken to a place where they could see, in the distance, the Long March 5 rocket which carries the Chang'e-5 probe. 

China made its first lunar landing in 2013. In January 2019, the Chang'e-4 probe touched down on the far side of the moon, the first by any nation's space probe. Within the next decade, China plans to establish a robotic base station to conduct unmanned exploration in the south polar region.

The Chang'e-5 mission aims to conduct unmanned lunar sample collection and return to Earth, one of the country's most complicated and challenging space missions, news agency PTI reported. It will contribute to the scientific studies in fields such as the formation and evolution of the moon, it said.

A major space power, China launched its first Mars mission 'Tianwen-1' on July 23, 2020. The Mars spacecraft which included an orbiter, lander and rover is on its way to the red planet.

China launched its first lunar probe, Chang'e-1, in 2007 which orbited 200 km above the moon and mapped 3D images of the lunar surface followed by Chang'e-2 in 2010 which had sent high resolution photos of the moon's surface. Chang'e-3 was launched in 2013 which softly touched down on the Sinus Iridum 12 days later. Chang'e-3 included a lander and a moon rover called Yutu (Jade Rabbit).

China had launched an experimental spacecraft in 2014 to test technologies to be used on Chang'e-5. The Chang'e-4 probe was launched in 2018. It made the first-ever soft landing on the Von Karman Crater in the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the far side of the moon.

Chang'e-4, including a lander and a moon rover called Yutu-2, or Jade Rabbit-2, conducted low-frequency radio astronomical observation, terrain and landform survey, mineral composition and shallow lunar surface structure detection, and neutron radiation and neutral atom measurement, according to PTI reports.