China's next ambitious step towards conquering space began with the launch of the first Chang'e 5, a robotic spacecraft that has an intermediate destination of the Moon before returning to our planet.
The launch took place on Friday aboard a Long March 3C rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in the southern Sichuan province. Chang'e 5 T-1 (meaning Test 1) is the vehicle's Western name.
The eponymous program aims to land vehicles that will collect samples from the Moon's surface and bring them back to Earth for analysis.
Chang'e 5 T-1 will not land on the Moon, but after reaching the Moon it will return to Earth, in order to test re-entry procedures into the Earth's atmosphere in practice.
The Chang'e 5 program is the follow-up to Chang'e 3, which was crowned with success last December, when a corresponding spacecraft successfully landed on the Moon.
Its name, Chang'e, comes from the Chinese deity of the Moon.
Source: ethnos.gr
