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China’s National Space Administration reported that the “Changi-5” return vehicle had landed in Inner Mongolia, in northern China.
China is seeking to catch up with the United States and Russia on space invasion missions and has spent billions on its military space program.
The probe, named after a mythical Chinese moon goddess, landed on the moon on December 1 to begin its return journey two days later, and when it was on its surface, it raised the flag Chinese, according to the Chinese space agency.
Scientists hope the samples collected will help them identify the origin and formation of the moon and volcanic activity on its surface.
With this mission, China became the third country able to obtain lunar samples after the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1960s and 1970s.
This is the first attempt to collect samples since the Soviet Luna 24 mission in 1976.
The mission of the probe was to collect two kilograms of material in an area called “the ocean of storms”, a lava plain hitherto unexplored, according to the scientific journal Nature.
President Xi Jinping, calling China’s “space dream”, has given Chinese plans in this area a major boost to the Chinese space program.
China hopes to complete a manned space station by 2022 and also send astronauts to the moon.
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