China’s Chang’e 5 spacecraft, which brings back samples from the Moon to Earth, managed to moor in the lunar orbit module on Sunday.
If the return to Earth goes smoothly, China will become the third country to bring back samples, after the United States and the former USSR.
AFP
China’s Chang’e 5 probe, which left the Moon on Thursday to bring samples back to Earth, managed to dock with the module in lunar orbit on Sunday, a new first for the Chinese space program, state media report .
This maneuver was part of an ambitious mission to bring back rocks from its satellite to the blue planet, for the first time in more than 40 years. Chang’e 5 is made up of several parts: an orbiter (remained in lunar orbit throughout the mission), a moon landing (which landed on the moon) and a ascent module (from the ground to the lunar orbit).
It is the latter which, loaded with samples of lunar soil, docked Sunday morning with the orbiter, according to the official news agency New China, which quoted the national space agency (CNSA). New China specifies that this is for Beijing the “first meeting and the first mooring carried out in lunar orbit”.
New stage of the Chinese space program
The departure of the capsule from the Moon on Thursday was also historic for China, since it was the first time that Beijing had taken off a craft from an alien body. The samples, first placed in the ascent module, were transferred to a “return capsule”, which will make the trip to the blue planet, according to New China.
If the return to Earth goes smoothly, China will become the third country to bring back samples, after the United States and the former USSR. The last attempt was Soviet, with the uninhabited Luna 24 mission carried out successfully in 1976. The module arrived on the Moon on Tuesday had deployed the Chinese flag there, according to images broadcast by public television CCTV.
This mission is the next step in the Chinese space program, which struck a big blow in early 2019 by landing a machine on the far side of the Moon, a world first. This is not the first time that the Asian giant has launched a device towards the lunar star as part of the Chang’e program – named after a moon goddess according to Chinese mythology.
He has already landed two small remote-controlled robots (the “Jade Rabbits”) there in 2013 and 2019. China is investing billions of euros in its space program, to catch up with Europe, Russia and the United States .
Posted today at 6:09 am-
