KEY POINTS
  • A Chinese spacecraft carrying lunar samples has blasted off from the moon and is preparing to come back to earth.
  • It's the first time China has launched a spacecraft from an extraterrestrial body and the first time it has collected moon samples.
  • If the moon samples make it back to earth, China will be only the third country to retrieve lunar samples after the efforts by the U.S. and Soviet Union in the 1960s and 1970s.
The Long March 5 rocket carrying Chang'e 5 is seen on the launch pad at the Wenchang Space Launch Site on Hainan. The 8.2-tonne Change 5 probe, which consists of a lander, an ascender, a service module and a return capsule, is the sixth mission of the Chinese lunar exploration programme Change. The goal of the mission is to collect lunar soil and rock samples from Oceanus Procellarum and bring them back to the Earth. If successful, Change 5 will be the first sample-return mission since the 1976.
Alexei Ivanov | TASS | Getty Images

GUANGZHOU, China — A Chinese spacecraft carrying lunar samples has blasted off from the moon and is preparing to come back to Earth.

It's the first time China has launched a spacecraft from an extraterrestrial body and the first time it has collected moon samples. If the moon samples make it back to Earth, China will be only the third country in the world to retrieve lunar samples after the efforts by the U.S. in the 1960s and the Soviet Union in the 1970s.