China to launch moon mission to retrieve first lunar rock since 1970s

Agency: China plans to launch an unmanned spacecraft to the moon this week to bring back lunar rocks for the first time since the 1970s.

According to Reuters, 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.

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.

Since the Soviet Union crash-landed the Luna 2 on the moon in 1959, the first human-made object to reach another celestial body, a handful of other countries including Japan and India have launched moon missions.

China’s probe, scheduled to launch in coming days, will attempt to collect 2 kg of samples in a previously unvisited area in a massive lava plain known as “Ocean of Storms”.

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.