You Can Watch China Launch a Daring Moon Rock Mission Right Now
At 3:25 p.m. EST, China National Space Administration (CNSA) plans to launch its Chang'e-5 lunar sample return mission.
The Long March 5 rocket will blast off from Wenchang Space Launch Center on China's Hainan Island.
The mission follows the China's other lunar missions, including Chang'e-4, which was the first to land on the far side of the moon.
For the first time in more than four decades, humans are sending a sample return mission to collect lunar rocks from the moon. China National Space Administration's (CNSA) Chang'e-5 mission will attempt to gather roughly four pounds of material from the lunar surface and return it back to Earth.
The Long March 5 rocket and its massive four-module payload—we're talking a lander, ascender, orbiter, and returner—are scheduled to lift off from Wenchang Space Launch Center on Hainan Island in China at 3:25 p.m. EST. You can track the events leading up to the launch on this unofficial live stream provided by LC-123:
It will be a quick trip for the rover. If everything goes according to plan, the lander will take one lunar day (that's roughly two Earth weeks) to scope out and collect samples from the previously unexplored region Oceanus Procellarum, a vast lava plain on the near side of the moon.
The lander will then deposit the samples in the ascender, which will lift off from the lunar surface. Next, there will be a daring sample handoff in lunar orbit. Eventually, the moon-rock-filled return module will parachute down over a grassy plain in Northern Mongolia.
The Chinese Academy of Sciences National Astronomical Observatory of China (NAOC) in Beijing will store the samples once they've returned to Earth. Some will be put on display, while others will be split among research labs in China, Nature reports. It's unclear whether researchers from institutions outside of China will have the opportunity to study the samples.
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The scientific insights gleaned from these samples could reshape our understanding of how the moon formed and answer key questions about previous volcanic activity.
Earlier lunar samples revealed a quiet period in the moon's volcanic past starting 3.5 billion years ago. But recent studies have called this theory into question. Chang'e-5 may finally shed light on the mystery and provide the scientific community with a definitive picture of volcanic activity on the lunar surface.
CNSA has been busy in recent years. The agency's Chang'e-4 mission was the first lunar mission to reach the far side of the moon. (The images from the mission are stunning.) Meanwhile, CNSA's first interplanetary mission, Tianwen-1 (an orbiter, lander and rover trio), departed for Mars this summer.
CNSA's lunar sample return mission is similar to the joint European Space Agency (ESA)/NASA Mars sample return mission that the ESA planned for the next decade. NASA's Perseverance rover is more than halfway to the Red Planet and will begin to collect samples shortly after it lands in February. A follow-up ESA mission will launch in 2026 with the goal of returning Martian samples to Earth by 2031.
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