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Wenchang (AP) - China has brought an unmanned spaceship on its way to a landing on the moon.
During the flight, rock samples should be brought back to earth for the first time in more than four decades.
The "Long March 5" rocket lifted off early Tuesday morning local time (Monday evening CET) from the space station in Wenchang on the southern Chinese island of Hainan.
The spaceship, named after the Chinese moon goddess "Chang'e 5", is expected to bring a lander to the moon on Sunday to collect rocks and drill samples.
With a successful return, China would be only the third space nation, after the USA and the Soviet Union in the 1960s and 1970s, to succeed in such a project.
The spaceship is supposed to land in the volcanic area named after the German astronomer Karl Rümker (1788-1862).
It is located in the "ocean of storms" in the upper left part of the earth-facing side of the moon.
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The mission is considered to be one of the most complicated that China's space travel has ever undertaken: for the first time, a Chinese ascent would start again from the moon, take rock samples and perform a docking maneuver in the orbit of the earth's satellite before the return capsule flies back to earth.
The 8,200 kilogram spaceship consists of four modules: the orbiter with the return capsule and the lander with the ascent stage.
After touching down on the lunar surface, the lander will use a long arm to collect around two kilograms of lunar rock and samples from boreholes up to two meters deep and stow them in a chamber.
After the ascent and the docking maneuver with the orbiter, the rock samples are to be loaded into the capsule, which then returns to Earth.
The spaceship is scheduled to land in the Siziwang Banner in Inner Mongolia on December 16 or 17.
Scientists are eagerly awaiting the samples, as no rock from recent lunar history has yet been brought to earth for studies.
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The “ocean of storms” is only 1.2 million years old.
Moon rocks collected by the USA and the Soviet Union, on the other hand, are significantly older, at 3.1 and 4.4 million years.
The largest lunar plain got its name from the earlier assumption that its appearance with the waning crescent meant stormy weather.
Researchers hope that the samples will provide important new insights into volcanic activity and the history of the moon.
The US Apollo missions brought back around 380 kilograms of lunar rock.
The Soviet Union collected a total of 300 grams - most recently with the unmanned "Luna 24" mission in 1976, when around 170 grams of moon dust was brought to earth.
The Chinese moon flight takes place 51 years after the USA's first manned moon landing on July 21, 1969, when Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin were the first people to step on the surface of the Earth's satellite.
The USA has brought astronauts to the moon six times - most recently with “Apollo 17” in December 1972.
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It is only the second regular flight of the more than 800-ton Chinese rocket “Long March 5” after such a type launched the Mars probe “Tianwen-1” in July.
Initially there were problems with the engine of the new heavy-lift rocket, which had led to the lunar mission being postponed by three years.
"Chang'e 5" is supposed to land on the moon at sunrise and stay on earth for one lunar day - two weeks.
The spaceship does not have to be equipped with special heating devices to withstand the extremely cold temperatures of the moonlit night.
The complexity of the three-week flight is also considered preparation for possible manned moon landings in the future.
China is pursuing an ambitious space program with missions to the moon and Mars and the construction of its own space station.
In January 2019, China landed as the first space nation with “Chang'e 4” on the relatively unexplored far side of the moon.
A rover has been abandoned to continue exploring the surface.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 201123-99-438831 / 3
Ocean of storms
NASA