China's Chang'e-5 lunar probe lifts off to collect moon samples

APD NEWS

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China has launched the Chang'e-5 lunar probe from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in the southern province of Hainan .

This is the China's first sample return mission, which has been one of China's most complicated and difficult space tasks by far. Only two other countries, the U.S. and the former Soviet Union, have brought samples back from the moon.

It would also be the world's first unmanned sample return. The lunar probe, which weighs over eight tons, is comprised of four parts: an orbiter, a returner, an ascender and a lander.

The lander will collect moon samples and place them in a vessel aboard the ascender, which will dock with the orbiter and returner, orbiting the moon.

The samples will then be transferred to the returner. After separation, the returner re-enters the earth alone, which is expected to land in north China's Inner Mongolia in mid-December.

This is the second time the Long March-5 carrier heavy-load vehicle, currently China's largest launch vehicle, will be put into practical use. In July, it successfully sent China's first Mars probe Tianwen-1 into the Earth-Mars transfer orbit.

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