WENCHANG (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 24th November, 2020) Chinese heavy-lift launch vehicle Chang Zheng 5 with the Chang'e 5 return vehicle, which is planned to land on the Moon, collect samples of lunar soil and return with them to Earth, was launched from the cosmodrome at Hainan, a Sputnik correspondent reported.
The launch took place from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site on the Hainan Island. If successful, the Chang'e-5 mission will be the first mission since the late 1970s to deliver regolith to Earth. Previously, only the Soviet Union and the United States managed to do this.
The Chang'e-5 probe was originally planned to be launched at the end of November 2017, but due to failure of the Chang Zheng 5 launch vehicle in July 2017, the mission had to be postponed. Further, the mission was scheduled for the end of 2019, but it was postponed again.
