CHINA yesterday launched a spacecraft to collect and return samples from the moon, the country’s first attempt to retrieve samples from an extraterrestrial body.

A Long March-5 rocket, carrying the Chang’e-5 spacecraft, blasted off from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site on the coast of the southern island province of Hainan at 4:30 a.m.

Chang’e-5 is one of the most complicated and challenging missions in China’s aerospace history, as well as the world’s first moon-sample mission for more than 40 years.

The mission will help promote China’s science and technology development, and lay an important foundation for China’s future manned lunar landing and deep space exploration, said Pei Zhaoyu, deputy director of the Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center of the China National Space Administration.

Chang’e-5, comprising an orbiter, a lander, an ascender and a returner, with a total takeoff mass of 8.2 tons, is expected to accomplish unmanned rendezvous and docking in lunar orbit, an unprecedented feat.

After it enters the lunar orbit, the lander-ascender combination will separate from the orbiter-returner combination.

While the orbiter-returner orbits about 200 kilometers above the lunar surface, the lander-ascender will touch down on the northwest region of Oceanus Procellarum, also known as the Ocean of Storms, on the near side of the moon in early December.     (Continued on P4)