China gets rocket ready to launch ambitious mission to the moon
- Long March-5 rocket has been transported to the space base in Wenchang on Hainan Island
- Lander is to drill beneath the surface to collect rocks and other lunar materials to bring back to Earth
China on Tuesday moved a massive rocket into place in preparation for launching a mission to bring back materials from the moon for the first time in four decades.
The Long March-5 was transported by tractor from its hangar to the nearby launch site at the space base in Wenchang along the coast of the southern island province of Hainan.
The Chang’e-5 mission it will carry is scheduled to launch early next week, placing a lander on the moon that will drill 2 metres (almost 7 feet) beneath the surface and scoop up rocks and other debris to be brought to Earth. That would allow scientists to study newly obtained lunar materials for the first time since the American and Russian missions of the 1960s and 1970s.
The mission, named for the Chinese moon goddess, is among China’s most ambitious as its space programme continues to build steam since it first put a man in space in 2003, becoming only the third nation to do so after the US and Russia.
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