The lander of the Chinese mission Chang’e 5, during which it is planned to deliver lunar samples to Earth, made a successful soft landing on a natural satellite of the planet. On Twitter reports CGTN.
“As the National Space Administration of China announced on Tuesday, Chang’e 5 has successfully landed on the visible side of the moon,” the publication said. It also notes that Chang’e 5 became “the third Chinese probe to successfully make a soft landing on the moon.”
Drilling is planned to be carried out on the Moon as part of Chang’e 5. About two kilograms of samples of volcanic origin obtained in this way from Rumker Peak, located in the northwestern part of the visible side of the Moon, should be transported to a circumlunar orbit in about two days. Delivery of the regolith to Earth is scheduled for the third week of December.
Mission Chang’e 5 launched on November 24 with a heavy Long rocket March 5 from Wenchang Cosmodrome. The last time the successful delivery of soil from the lunar surface was carried out in the 1970s by the USSR and the USA.
In January 2019, the Chinese National Space Administration released the video of the world’s first soft landing on the opposite side of the moon. The lander with the 140-kilogram lunar rover of the Chang’e 4 mission made a soft landing in the South Pole – Aitken basin on January 3. Before that, no country in the world had landed on the far side of the moon.