Launch of Chang'e 5

Chang'e 5 was a Chinese robotic mission to collect rock and soil from the Moon and bring it back to Earth. It was launched on a Long March 5 rocket from the Wenchang site and landed in a volcanic region of Oceanus Procellarum, near Mons Rümker, where it drilled and scooped up material. An ascent vehicle then lifted the samples into lunar orbit, where they were transferred to a return capsule that landed in Inner Mongolia. About 1.7 kilograms of material were returned, the first lunar samples since the Soviet Luna 24 mission in 1976. Analysis showed that the basalt there is about two billion years old, much younger than most Apollo samples, which suggests that volcanism on the Moon lasted longer than had been thought.

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