The capsule of the Chinese probe Chang’e 5 has successfully returned to Earth with lunar soil samples, reports the State Space Administration of China in Twitter -account.
The module landed in the area of Hoshun Siziwan in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of the PRC, as planned. It is expected to deliver about two kilograms of regolith to Earth for the first time in 44 years after the United States and the USSR. Ground crews prepare to transport the lunar assembly capsule to safety, where it will be opened and examined by specialists.
Mission Chang’e 5 launched on November 24 with a heavy rocket Long March 5 from Wenchang Cosmodrome. Chang’e 5 soft landing on the Moon took place on December 1, and two days later he left the surface of a natural satellite of the Earth.
Chang’e 5 became the third Chinese probe to successfully land on the moon and the first to successfully take off from the lunar surface. The last time man-made objects left a natural satellite of the Earth was 44 years ago (the Soviet “Luna-24” in 1976).