WENCHANG (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd November, 2020) China has started fueling its heavy-lift carrier rocket Long March 5 (Changzheng 5), which is set to send the Chang'e-5 vehicle into space to bring back material from the moon's surface, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) said on Monday.
The launch will take place at the Wenchang launch site in the province of Hainan on early Tuesday.
"The fueling of carrier rocket Long March 5 started on November 23 at 6:30 p.m. local time [10:30 GMT], the launch is expected between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m. on November 24," the CNSA said in a statement.
The launch has been rescheduled several times. The mission failed to launch in 2017 and was rescheduled to take place in 2018, but was postponed to July 2019, and then to late 2019 only to be postponed once again.
If successful, Chang'e 5 will be the first mission since the late 1970s to deliver regolith, the material on the moon's surface, to Earth. Previously, only the USSR and the United States managed to do this.
