Moon probe
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Change 5 is the third Chinese probe to land on the moon | Photo: CNSA

China's moon probe preparing to return rock samples to Earth

China's latest lunar probe has finished taking samples of the moon's surface and sealed them within the spacecraft for return to Earth, the government announced on Thursday.


China’s latest lunar probe has finished taking samples of the moon’s surface and sealed them within the spacecraft for return to Earth, the government announced on Thursday.

Change 5, the third Chinese probe to land on the moon, is the latest in a series of increasingly ambitious missions for Beijing’s space programme, which also has a probe en route to Mars carrying a robot rover.

The Change 5 touched down on Tuesday on a mission to return lunar rocks to Earth for the first time since 1976.

The probe has completed sampling on the moon, and the samples have been sealed within the spacecraft, the China National Space Administration said in a statement.

Plans call for the upper stage of the probe to be launched back into lunar orbit to transfer the samples to a capsule for return to Earth.


(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Federal staff and is auto-published from a syndicated feed.)

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