The Chinese lunar probe Chang’e-5 successfully delivers lunar samples to Earth

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In the early hours of Thursday morning in Beijing, the country’s unmanned Chang’e-5 mission returned to Earth with the country’s first lunar samples, according to Chinese state media Xinhua.

The samples are also the first to have been collected by any country since the 1970s.

The returning capsule landed in Siziwang Banner, which lies north of China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, just before 2 a.m. on Thursday in Beijing (Wednesday 1 p.m. ET), according to the Chinese National Space Administration (CNSA).

The probe, named after the ancient Chinese goddess of the moon, first took off from Wenchang Spacecraft launch site in Hainan on Nov. 24.

A Long March 5 rocket with China's Chang'e-5 moon probe will be launched from the Wenchang Space Center on Nov. 24.

China’s achievement follows the United States and the Soviet Union, both of which collected lunar samples decades ago.

In the Apollo program, which brought men to the moon for the first time, the United States landed 12 astronauts on six flights from 1969 to 1972, bringing back 382 kg (842 pounds) of rocks and soil.

The Soviet Union deployed three successful robotic monster return missions in the 1970s. The last, the Luna 24, obtained 170.1 gram (6 ounces) samples from Mare Crisium, or “Sea of ​​Crises”, in 1976.

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