China has launched a historic mission ‘Chang’e 5‘ to the moon to collect ‘first lunar samples’. The mission aims at the investigation of the landing area to obtain the on-site analysis data related to the lunar samples, as well as systematic and long-term laboratory analysis of the lunar samples. It is the world’s first moon-sample mission in more than 40 years. Till date, only two nations, the US and the Soviet Union have been able to collect the lunar sample. The last mission was undertaken by Soviet Union’s Luna 24 mission in 1976.
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About the Mission:
- The spacecraft “Chang’e-5” was launched on China’s indigenous Long March-5 rocket from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site on the coast of the southern island province of Hainan province.
- This is China’s first attempt to retrieve samples from an extraterrestrial body.
- China’s spacecraft will collect and return samples from the moon. If successful, China will become the only third nation to have collected the lunar sample.