China has cleared a major hurdle in its mission to bring rock samples from the far side of the moon to Earth. The ascent module of the “Chang’e-6” probe was successfully docked with the spacecraft consisting of an orbiter and a return vehicle in lunar orbit on Thursday.
After docking, the collected samples were automatically transferred to the return vehicle. The return journey to Earth will now begin “at an appropriate time”, the official Chinese news agency Xinhua reported. The landing is planned in Inner Mongolia, in northern China.
In early May, “Chang’e-6” launched its mission from Wenchang Spaceport on South China’s Hainan Island. After just over four days of flying, the probe entered lunar orbit and circled Earth’s satellite to find a suitable time and place for landing.
Last Sunday, “Chang’e 6” reached the moon’s largest and oldest impact crater in the so-called South Pole-Aitken Basin. Researchers have long wanted to obtain rock samples from this region because they could potentially provide information about the formation of the moon, Earth and the early history of our solar system.
Source: Krone
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