Editor’s Note: The lunar samples collected by China’s Chang’e-5 mission were returned to Earth on December 16, parachuting down at about 1:00 p.m. ET in Inner Mongolia. Recovery vehicles arrived in the area shortly after touchdown to collect the return capsule, which will be transported to the Chinese Lunar Sample Laboratory in Beijing for study. The following story originally published on November 23.
China is attempting its most complex and ambitious space mission to date with the launch of its Chang’e-5 spacecraft, which will attempt to do something that has not been done since the 1970s: bring pristine pieces of the moon back to Earth.
On November 23 at around 3:30 p.m. ET, a Long March 5 rocket lifted off from Wenchang Satellite Launch Center, on the coast of China’s Hainan Island, carrying the 8.2-ton spacecraft. After separating from the rocket, Chang’e-5 will use its own thrusters to make the estimated four-day trip to the moon. The spacecraft will then release a lander that will touch down near a volcanic mound called Mons Rümker in the northwest region of the lunar near side. There,
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