The Chang'e-5 spacecraft is headed to the moon to collect lunar samples. The moon-sample mission, the world's first for over 40 years, has been called one of the most complicated in China's aerospace history. This animation explains how the task will be completed.
China plans to launch the Chang'e-5 lunar probe at the end of November this year, from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in southern China's Hainan Province, aboard the heavy-lift carrier rocket Long March-5. The mission will be China's first automated moon surface sampling, first moon take-off, first unmanned docking in a lunar orbit about 380,000 km from earth, and first return flight in a speed close to second cosmic velocity, according to the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC).
China plans to launch the Chang'e-5 lunar probe next year, which is expected to bring lunar samples back to the Earth. The Chang'e-5 lunar probe will be very complex, containing four parts: an orbiter, a returner, an ascender and a lander. The lander will put moon samples in a vessel in the ascender after the Moon landing. Then the ascender will take off from the Moon to dock with the orbiter and the returner orbiting the Moon, and transfer the samples to the returner.
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