CHINA launched a spacecraft yesterday to bring back rocks and soil from the moon’s surface for the first time in more than 40 years — an undertaking that could boost human understanding of the moon.

The Long March-5, China’s largest carrier rocket, blasted off at 4:30am from Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site on the southern island province of Hainan carrying the Chang’e-5 spacecraft.

Minutes after liftoff, the spacecraft separated from the rocket’s first and second stages and slipped into Earth-moon transfer orbit. About an hour later, Chang’e 5 opened its solar panels to provide its independent power source.

The China National Space Administration called the launch a success and state broadcaster CCTV showed images of CNSA staff in blue uniforms applauding and cheering as they watched the spacecraft climbing through the atmosphere.

Crowds watched the launch from the beach on the tropical Chinese island, holding mobile phones aloft to film as the rocket blasted into the sky.

Chang’e-5 is one of the most complicated and challenging missions in China’s aerospace history, as well as the country’s first attempt to retrieve samples from an extraterrestrial body.

The mission will help promote China’s science and technology development, and lay an important foundation for China’s future manned lunar landing and deep space exploration, said Pei Zhaoyu, deputy director of the Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center of the CNSA.

Chang’e-5, comprising an orbiter, a lander, an ascender and a returner, with a total takeoff mass of 8.2 tons, is expected to accomplish unmanned rendezvous and docking in lunar orbit, an unprecedented feat.

After it enters the lunar orbit, the lander-ascender combination will separate from the orbiter-returner combination.

While the orbiter-returner orbits about 200km above the lunar surface, the lander-ascender will touch down on the northwest region of Oceanus Procellarum, also known as the Ocean of Storms, on the near side of the moon in early December.

Within 48 hours, a robotic arm will be extended to scoop up rocks and regolith on the lunar surface, and a drill will bore into the ground. About 2kg of samples are expected to be collected and sealed in a container in the spacecraft. Then the ascender will take off, and dock with the orbiter-returner to transfer the samples.

When the geometric relationship between Earth and the moon is suitable, the orbiter will carry the returner back to Earth. The returner will reenter the atmosphere and land at the Siziwang Banner in north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

The mission would offer the first opportunity for scientists to study newly obtained lunar material since the American and Russian missions of the 1960s and 1970s. The landing is due to take place in about eight days while the entire mission is scheduled to take around 23 days.

Pei said if the Chang’e-5 mission succeeds, China’s current lunar exploration project would come to a successful conclusion.

Named after Chinese moon goddess Chang’e, China’s current three-step lunar exploration program, which began in 2004, includes orbiting and landing on the moon, and bringing back samples. Through the program, China has acquired the basic technologies of unmanned lunar exploration with limited investment, said Pei.

China is drawing up plans for future lunar exploration. To pave the way for manned lunar exploration and deep space exploration, the Chang’e-5 mission will use a sampling method different to those of the United States and the Soviet Union, said Pei.

The United States sent astronauts to the moon to collect samples. In the Soviet Union’s unmanned lunar sampling missions, the spacecraft took off from the moon and returned to Earth directly. But China chose a complicated technological approach including unmanned rendezvous and docking in lunar orbit, which could bring back more samples and lay a technological foundation for manned lunar missions, Pei said.

“Unmanned rendezvous and docking in lunar orbit will be a historic first. It will be very difficult,” said Peng Jing, deputy chief designer of the Chang’e-5 probe from the China Academy of Space Technology under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.

“We could call it a milestone mission. Its success will help us acquire the basic capabilities for future deep space exploration such as sampling and takeoff from Mars, asteroids and other celestial bodies,” Peng said.

The scientific goals of the Chang’e-5 mission include 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.

The landing site of Chang’e-5 will be to the west of that of Chang’e-3, which went to the moon in 2013. This site is chosen because the region has a young geological age, younger than the sampling areas of the United States and the Soviet Union. The new samples will be of great scientific value, said experts.

“Domestic and overseas scientists will all have a chance to get the lunar samples to be brought back by Chang’e-5 for research,” Pei added.

Scientific instruments installed on the lander include cameras to survey the landing site and sampling area, an infrared spectrometer to detect the material composition of the sampling area, and equipment to probe subsurface structure.

“Chang’e-5 will give scientists a better understanding of its formation and evolution,” Peng Jing said, “We designed two methods for the spacecraft to collect samples. One is to sample the lunar surface, and the other is to drill underground. The two methods could increase the chance of getting more diverse samples.”

China’s Chang’e-4 probe, which landed on the far side of the moon in early 2019, is still working, and has made a series of scientific discoveries. “But we are looking forward to carrying out more detailed research on the lunar soil in laboratories on Earth. Chang’e-5 will help scientists realize this dream,” said Lin Yangting, a researcher with the Institute of Geology and Geophysics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.