Chinese space agency publishes first images of recent moon landing

The Chinese National Space Agency has published photos and a video of the landing of its lunar module. The spacecraft used for this, called Chang’e 5, recently landed successfully on the moon. The moon rock collection has now been completed.

Among other things, the China National Space Administration has published a panoramic photo showing a leg of the lander in the foreground, including part of the lunar surface, which lies in the Oceanus Procellarum. The agency has also published a short video showing the landing and approaching the lunar surface, in an accelerated image. This shows how the lander decelerates and floats for a while to avoid obstacles before the actual landing is initiated.

Chang’e 5 landed successfully on the moon on Tuesday afternoon and will collect moon rocks there. To do this, stones are picked from the bottom and the ground is drilled through. These must be returned to Earth. To do this, the lander takes off again and connects to the probe, which is located at an altitude of 200 kilometers above the surface of the moon. The lander should arrive back on Earth in about two weeks. The mission began last week with the launch of a Long March rocket.

The Chinese state news agency Xinhua reports that the China National Space Administration has announced that the lander has completed the collection of the moon rocks. That is a day earlier than planned; in total, the lander spent nineteen hours on this. The samples, collected from different locations, were stored in a vacuum container in Chang’e 5 as planned.