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China Moon Space

China's Chang'e 5 Mission Lands on the Moon (theverge.com) 32

China's Chang'e 5 mission, tasked with bringing a sample of lunar dirt back to Earth, successfully landed on the Moon on Tuesday, marking the third time that China has placed a robotic spacecraft on the lunar surface. The lander will soon begin digging up samples of lunar soil, which will be returned to our planet later this month. From a report: Chang'e 5 launched from China's Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site on November 23rd, flying to space on top of a Long March 5 rocket. It's a complex mission consisting of four main spacecraft that will all work together to bring between 2 to 4 kilograms of lunar dirt back to Earth. The quartet traveled to the Moon attached together and got into lunar orbit on November 28th.Two of those four spacecraft include a lander and an ascent vehicle, which are stacked on top of each other. On November 28th, the pair separated from the third spacecraft, Chang'e-5's service module, which remained in orbit around the Moon. The lander and ascent module touched down on the lunar surface today, according to CGTN, though a time was not provided. Now over the next few days, the lander will use a robotic arm to drill into the lunar dirt and scoop up rocks, storing them inside a sample container.
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China's Chang'e 5 Mission Lands on the Moon

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  • OK, lets hope there will be Happy Take-Offings, as well as Happy Returnings and Yet Another Very Happy Landings too.
  • Did the 4 guys who dismantled the monolith in Utah re-erect it in time on the moon?

  • High and low (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Corbets ( 169101 ) on Tuesday December 01, 2020 @12:41PM (#60782616) Homepage

    By the submissions today, it seems that they both went to the deepest place on earth and made it to the moon on the same day.

    Something of a warning shot to the west, there.

    • by whitroth ( 9367 )

      Don't worry, the white-wing flakes will be all over this any minute, claiming it didn't happen, and it's going to crash, and whatever bs they can come up with.

      Rather than cheering that humans did it.

    • While an impressive technological feat, it won't do much to alter the growing competition between the US and China nor will it fundamentally change or shift the balance of power between the two, so I think this hardly qualifies as a "warning shot".
      • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        A better description might be "wake up call". Even now, even in this very discussion, people write off China as having no talent of its own and having stolen everything. That's the same mistake that was made with Japan, and I've known people who were still repeating the "they just copy the West" line only a few years ago.

        Meanwhile everyone is buying superior Japanese cars and we are starting to see Chinese ones gain market share.

        China is making steady progress towards landing people on the Moon, and good lu

      • by cusco ( 717999 )

        Eh, most Americans always think that everything is about them. They're wrong, this has nothing to do with any sort of imaginary competition with the US. This is China demonstrating to the Third World that they're a modern and technologically competent nation worth partnering with for the future.

  • by Iamthecheese ( 1264298 ) on Tuesday December 01, 2020 @01:31PM (#60782762)
    Such an achievement by any human is an achievement for all mankind. Here's hoping for many more to come.
  • That's OUR Moon! Go home or pay rent! We have flags...
  • What is this a victory for?

    Are we saying China should embrace the freedom and prosperity Americans have enjoyed since the US started?

Time is the most valuable thing a man can spend. -- Theophrastus

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