China dodges speeding space junk bullet after Chang’e 5 moon mission
- The Chinese space administration has gone to great lengths to avoid adding to the millions of pieces of debris in orbit
- Ascent vehicle returns to the moon’s surface where it will pose no threat to future space missions
China said on Tuesday the Chang’e 5 ascent vehicle was instructed to land on a preset area of the moon’s surface. After departing the lunar orbit at 6.59am, the ascender landed about half an hour later near 0 degrees longitude and a latitude of 30 degrees south.
Experts from the China National Space Administration said the landing was intended to reduce the risks to future lunar exploration missions by preventing the unmanned probe from becoming space junk. “This is an important pledge made by China as a responsible major country, towards the peaceful exploration and utilisation of space by humans,” a statement said.
01:07
China’s Chang’e 5 spacecraft waits for best trajectory to return to Earth
The problem of space junk has been expanding alongside human expansion beyond the Earth. There are now millions of pieces of mostly human-generated objects, including bits of old spacecraft, rockets and satellites that are no longer in service.
These objects move around at high speed, with some reaching 18,000 miles an hour – almost seven times faster than a speeding bullet – according to Nasa, and when they crash into each other they generate more and smaller pieces of orbiting debris.
Early on Sunday, the lunar probe completed a complex docking manoeuvre, linking up with the main craft in orbit and transferring the samples. The Chang’e 5 is scheduled to land in China’s northern Inner Mongolia in mid-December.
