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The Americans gave half a gram of moon rock to the Chinese in 1979.
Apollo astronauts had handpicked it on the earth's satellite.
The Far Eastern space nation is no longer dependent on extraterrestrial alms of this kind.
The capsule of the Chinese spaceship “Chang'e 5” has now brought around two kilograms of lunar rock to earth.
It touched down in the steppes of northern China.
This makes China the third country after the USA and Russia to have taken rock samples from the moon on its own.
The mission of the "Chang'e 5" is a great success in several ways.
On the one hand, the samples come from a geologically interesting region of the moon, so that one can hope for new scientific knowledge from their analysis.
On the other hand, it's about prestige and national pride.
President Xi Jinping thanked the scientists involved in the mission with the words: "The country and its citizens will always remember your remarkable achievements."
Near-Earth space will play a growing role: for science, economy, geopolitics and the military, writes Norbert Lossau
Source: Ren Junchuan / XinHua / dpa, Claudius Pflug
Most importantly, the successful completion of the very demanding space mission proves China's technological capabilities.
It is a "big step" for China's space industry, said Xi Jinping.
The spectrum of technologies that one has to master for such a moon mission can also be used on earth in a variety of ways.
That is one side of the success.
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The other is that near-Earth space will play a growing role in the future: for science, business, geopolitics and the military.
Satellites research climate change, help with the search for raw materials, provide important information in disaster operations, enable global (tap-proof) communication, spy for secret services and have diverse military potential.
There is no longer any doubt that there are now three leading space travel nations on this planet.
The Japanese have also brought material samples from space to Earth these days.
The Hayabusa-2 spacecraft dropped several grams of rock and dust from the asteroid Ryugu.
That is also a great success.
At the same time, Japan and Europe tend to be just Central Powers in space travel.
They can only do a lot in cooperation with one of the three leading players.
Europe in particular works successfully with the USA, Russia and China.
Will that be enough in the long term to assert oneself in the competition?
In any case, Europe should continue to have its own independent access to space with the Ariane rockets.
The newly elected General Director of Esa could formulate further strategic goals.
The Austrian Josef Aschbachen will take over from the German Johann-Dietrich Wörner on July 1, 2021.
China succeeds first landing on the back of the moon
According to its own reports, China made the first successful landing on the far side of the moon.
The lunar spacecraft "Chang'e 4" touched down at the Aitken crater near the south pole of the satellite.
Source: WORLD / Fanny Juschten