China’s Long March-5, the country’s largest carrier rocket, successfully launched at 4:30 a.m. Beijing time from Wenchang Space Launch Center carrying the Chang’e-5 lunar probe, which will collect moon rocks to help scientists understand more about its origins and formation. This will also test China’s ability to remotely acquire samples from space, ahead of more complex missions in the near future. If Chang’e-5 returns successfully, it would make China the third country to have retrieved lunar samples. Read more for two videos and additional information.
After entering the moon’s orbit, the spacecraft will deploy a pair of vehicles to the lunar surface: a lander and an ascender. The landing is set to happen in approximately eight days, while the probe is due to arrive on the lunar surface for about two days. When all is said and done, the entire mission is scheduled to take around 23 days.
- Bring to life the rocket launch that took humans to the moon with the meter-high (approximately 1: 110 scale) model rocket of the NASA Apollo Saturn V
- The Saturn V rocket kit includes 3 removable rocket stages (first, s-ii second, and s-ivb third) below the launch escape system, command and service...
- After building the Saturn V rocket, you can display the spacecraft horizontally with 3 stands; The Lunar Lander docks with the command and service...
The biggest challenges … are the sampling work on the lunar surface, take-off from the lunar surface, rendezvous and docking in the lunar orbit, as well as high-speed re-entry to Earth. We can conduct sampling through circumlunar and moon- landing exploration, but it is more intuitive to obtain samples to conduct scientific research – the method is more direct,” said Pei Zhaoyu, director of the space administration’s Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering Center.
