Asia

China says probe sent to retrieve lunar rocks lands on moon

China Moon Mission
A Long March-5 rocket carrying the Chang'e 5 lunar mission lifts off at the Wenchang Space Launch Centre in Wenchang, Hainan, Nov 24, 2020. (Photo: AP/Mark Schiefelbein)

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BEIJING: A Chinese robot probe launched to return lunar rocks to Earth landed on the moon on Tuesday (Dec 1), the government announced.

The Chang'e 5 probe “successfully landed on the moon in the pre-selected landing area,” the official China News Service said, citing space officials. The one-sentence report gave no more details.

The probe adds to a string of increasingly ambitious missions by a Chinese space programme that aims eventually to land a human on the moon.

Source: AP/kv